UR’s first use of online registration began on Monday and is continuing with few hitches. By 2 p.m. Wednesday, 2,587 students had registered using the system, for a total of 12,771 courses.
“For the first time out, this is a huge success,” University Registrar Nancy Speck said. “We are very pleased as to how well it’s went. It’s about the best you can hope for the first time out.”
Most Students like the system, as well.
“I was happy to see it finally implemented here at UR,” senior Mike Cmar said. “I liked it because it was fast and actually easy to use. I personally didn’t have any problems with it.”
There have been a few glitches, but most have been solved quickly.
“On the first day we had a system thing where only the Arts and Science courses were showing, but that was quickly resolved,” Speck said. “[Tuesday] we had a system problem around 1:30 p.m. caused by a single student’s locked account. I think the system was only down for 35 minutes.”
Wednesday morning, the day of sophomore registration, there appeared to be 600 students online simultaneously between 8 and 9 a.m. According to Speck the large volume of students and the subsequent slow down were actually caused by a pair of students hacking the system. “It turned out to be a couple of students hacking and they will be dealt with,” Speck said.
Improvements will continue to be made to the system as time allows. “We want the ability for students to choose to audit a class,” Speck said. “There are lots of nice features that can come to bear with this system.”
Sophomore Class Council offers Thanksgiving busing
The Sophomore Class Council has organized a free shuttle bus to transport students to and from the airport during the Thanksgiving travel rush.
“This was an idea that came to the Sophomore Class Council at the beginning of the year,” SCC President and sophomore Mike Guerra said.
“We know that there are a limited number of sophomores who have cars, and we felt it would be a nice service to provide to our peers.”
Students can be chauffeured to the airport in the blue UR bus. There will be a sign in the window of the bus to avoid any confusion with other buses nearby.
On Wednesday the bus will depart from behind the ITS Center every half hour, on the half hour, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. On Sunday, the bus will run again from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. with the same frequency.
The bus will pick students up from the ground transportation area near the exit from the airport.
Once at the airport, students will be dropped off at the terminal, and responsible for getting to their individual airline gates.
The shuttle is co-sponsored by the Freshman Class Council.
“We know that this is a service that they would take advantage of also,” Guerra said. “Everyone remembers traffic created by cabs every Thanksgiving break in front of Sue B.”
If the program is successful this year, Sophomore Class Council may explore the feasibility of continuing the program for future years.
Reporting by Alissa Miller and Jeff Keesing.
