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Show Askew view Count your blessings: registration, teaching assistants and computers By Mike Whitney While strolling past the LDS Institute of Religion I heard the melodious tones of "Count Your Blessing" floating from inside, and it occurred to me at that moment that one of the blessings that University students should definitely count is the opportunity to fill out a preregistration card and get all the classes they want. Once in the hands of the omnipotent IBM machine, students can rest assured that all the requests on their cards will all be honored. Genuine Pleasure Of course, occasionally a class is filled, or cancelled, or the machine decides it does not like the way you filled out the index number, but students still have a second chance with hand registration. It's a genuine pleasure to deal with the registrars who will bend over backwards to register you for English 83, or Gross anatomy if English 83 doesn't happen to be available. Yes sir, a genuine pleasure. Not only are students blessed with a system that allows them to take the classes they want, they are also blessed with a catalogue and course evaluation book that provides them with an accurate description of what a class will be like before they sign up for it. Accurate Description Take my Theater 3 class, which is listed as "basic acting, pantomime." I had a slight problem finding the classroom, which was listed as PMT 219, but a kind lady in Pioneer Memorial Theater informed me that room 219 is the mens dressing room and that I would have to go through the men's lavitory to get to it. When I finally found the room I was informed that the class location had been changed to room 216, the lady's dressing room. I didn't dare ask how to get to it. I eventually found my way through the catacombs of PMT, however, and found a back entrance to the dressing room. The instructor launched into a description of the class and let it be known that although the catalogue describes the class as "basic acting, pantomime," we won't be doing any pantomime, and that he isn't the teacher listed in the catalogue but someone else. He didn't say who he was though. Another Story Now English 45 is another story entirely. The classroom wasn't changed, neither was the teacher, and the instructors description of the course matched the one in the catalogue. However the instructor did make one little announcement to the effect that although the bookstore is selling three different books for the course, at a total cost of nine dollars, he isn't going to use the books for his class and doesn't want the students in the class to buy them. I left the class wondering how long a person has to own a book before the bookstore considers it used. But after all, students should be able to put up with a few minor . inconveniences when they take into consideration the fact that the classes at the University are ! taught by some of the most ! qualified professors in the f country, or at least by teaching I assistants. Generous Legislature j I think that we could all agree that the fantastic classroom ! facilities, the top instructors who are inticed to teach here by the high salaries they receive, and a wide scope of classes that are I offered to University students can I be blamed on, I credited to the University's large staff of highly i qualified registrars. t It is a comfort to know that in I this world of chaos and confusion I there is a little spot like the , University where things are well : ordered. It is a credit to Utah ' enginuity. k Next time I'm wandering past the LDS Institute of Religion, and I hear the folks inside singing j "Count Your Blessings," I think j I'll join in and sing a chorus. |
