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Show Editorial Puf Human Touch In The Computer Inefficient, dull and boring as the process of registration regis-tration is, it has a lot to recommend it. Carrying all those little punched cards and colored papers around for several hours can be quite beneficial, especially jf one Ws the privilege of registering early. One can make trial adjustments in his schedule, plan for study times, select certain courses rather than others, pick the section he thinks will be most enjoyable, enjoy-able, choose the routes he thinks will be best between one class and another and even make some choice as to which professor he would like to hear his wisdom from. This dull, boring, time-consuming process will apparently ap-parently end next quarter with the advent of computer com-puter registration. Under the enlightened new system, the student will simply list the program he wants, with a few alternatives, al-ternatives, 'list the hours he would like to be free, and the computer will spew back a schedule for him to follow for the quarter. Welcome as the new system must seem to an administration ad-ministration overloaded by the mountain of paperwork paper-work it takes to run a multiversity, the new plan does have its drawbacks. Not the least of the complaints levied against such plans is the mechanical, subject-to-failure nature of the machine which allows for some phenomenal foul-ups in generally perfect work. But perhaps the greatest objection to a system of mechanical registration is the dehumanization of the educational process, a dehumanization that got worldwide, world-wide, front page coverage at Berkeley two years ago. Under the new process, the student can only make a guess and send off his list with a prayer that the brain in the engineering building or the Park Building Build-ing is thinking along the same lines he was when he made out his tentative schedule. He will no longer be able to use his rather limited knowledge to pick and choose among professors and courses as he finds what classes are available. Student governments, administrators and faculty have often been heard to cry with dismay at the lack of student participation in other than classroom activities. ac-tivities. We might suggest that part of the problem lies in the limited part the student is allowed to play in his education. It makes him unwilling to play much of a part outside the classroom. We urge that all who have anything to do with the character of computer registration leave as much human effort in the process as possible. We urge that students not only be allowed to choose their lunch periods, but also their professors. We further urge that the present student government govern-ment keep pushing for course and teacher evaluation programs which involve the student in the educational process and that student government, as the spokesman spokes-man of University students, demand that the administration admini-stration give more of a voice to students. Computers are fine as far as they go, but they really only go so far. |