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Show DAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1999 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-TI1EIJE(C&IMIJFfil§o~ Electronic grading coming online soon By KEVIN M. HARI G JOURNAL STAFF WRITER It's the first few day of the new ·eme tcr, and you want to add a cla. s that 's listed as full . You pick up an add/ drop slip, attend the class, and then wait in line to get the teacher to ign your slip, only to find out that the person in front of you was the last person who would be added to the cl . What a waste of time . . ow changes arc taking place that could avoid thi hassle. is moving to an electron! grading and record keeping ystem. Plans arc to have thi new ystem going by the end of this emester. One of the many benefits of thi y tern is that students can gee authorization to add a class by going to the faculty members' office, where authorization can be received over the web rather than by filling out papers and returning them to the Regi trar's Office . This new system will al o allow tudents lo receive their grades faster than they have before. " ,urrcntly, the professors must fill out bubble hects , which arc printed by the Registrar's Office and then cn t out to the profe ors. The huhhle hccts are then filled out by the professors , sent hack to the Regi ·crar' Office , and entered manually. This i a lengthy process. This new program will eliminate that process. The profe ors will enter the grade directly through the web, and the tudents will have their grade faster,". aid Kevin Wright, a software specialist associated with this new program . tudents will also be able to go co their adviser and have their chedule printed. Advi e~ will be able to as ist students with their schedules, and advisers can work wjch and print the degree audit, all which currently can only be done Lhrough the Registrar's Office. Not everybody is happy about the ·e changes, but according to Wright, "n body is forced to change. Jf they (teachers) are n t comfortable immediately with the proces , they will till have the old process available to them . We've had a really good respon e from the profc ors and we are in the pr es of going to each d partment and howing them all how to use this new product. I think the profe ors are looking forward to this.• One concern about this new sy Lem is whether the information entered, such as grade , student information, and registr.Hi n, will be backed up, or have an additional hard copy. "Thi product will immediately update the student record system on our mainframe computer, where we keep all of our student records," aid Wright. This product i hoped to pro ide faster grades co ·tudents, and to relieve stress on faculty and Regi trar' Office taff. This will not affect the student budget or tudent fee , and will be paid for by the school and the ·tate of Utah. Next semc ter, with thi new program on-line, pcrhap you can get into the class you want. Censorship Anonymous students protested SUU's Acceptable Use Policy for computer usage Friday . The students blindfolded every statue in the Centurium Monument and taped the sign pictured on the right to the coat of arms. y 1cm user., m.a~- nm : AUJuire. swre onii.splay any o4Y..cene. racial.I ofknsin:. thrc2lCning ~ . orotlienvl',,(: objedionable mate-rial. Aalq!l.lbl<-~ la: !>. NASC urges SUU to advance diversity Reutzel concerned that the university will have a hard time recruiting minorities without proper funding The Northwest A ociation of chool and College recently issued a report recommending that outhern Utah University strengthen its financial position, formulate a comprehensive assessment program, and advance diversity in the campus community. Provost Ray Reutzel said , "These are not easy i ue we've been called on ; the e are tough core i ue for almost every university." Reutzel stre cd the university 's financial bind, becau e "everything goes back to funding ." He said he worried that if the university "doesn 't get better funding by the lime the next round comes through, (the accreditation hoard] may put us on probation because we can 't perform • our mis ion ." He aid U has "approached the [ tah tace] legislature time and time again .• Of · financial need Reutzel said "They don 't believe us anymore." "Our faculty salaries here range from 18 to 50 percent le s than those at comparable school , depending on which estimates you use." The operating budget at SUU has not been increa ed in 12 years. Reutzel concluded that the university's choices "are very limited." Reutzel was more optimistic abouc creating a comprehensive as es ment program, by which the university can determine each department's objective and evaluate them. He aid that it's ju t a matter of doing it. Diver ity, however, I a concern for both Reutzel and student multicultural leaders. Reutzel said, "The major culture is going to be challenged" because "diver ity opens u up to things we' re not u ed to ." He said, "We 've got to make our univer ity a community that upports diverse faculty and students, and values [djver ity] for what it i . " He added, " It' not that we 're taking away from anybody to bring diversity in ; [different culture ] bring a richne , a new et of experiences ." However, he worried that the univer icy would have a hard time recruiting minorities without the p roper funding . Reutzel said, "To get diver e tudents to come here, we 're going to have to offer them scholarships, hecau e naturally , they're not going to want to pick up and drag them elves [to Cedar City]. which is not the hotbed of ethnic diver ity. " He also said the univer ity would probably have to pay minority faculty member more than Anglo-American faculty memhers for the same rea on. Multi-Cultural Repre cntative Rogelio Machuca aid he worried that the univcr ity might fulfill it diversity obligation for accreditation without fully embracing minorities. "We don 't want diversity to he forced becau. c of the accreditation," he said. "We don 't want there to be factions, " he added. Robin Grcymountain , pre ident of the Native American tudcnt · Association (N .A .. A.), sajd that he understood the univer ity 's fi cal , re traints. 1• She added, "There 's a lot of programs the university can upport in conjunction with .A.. A., hut we don 't have anyone with the time to work these programs through with us." ' he said, "If we had somchody that was a~ igned ju l to minority recruitment and retention through graduation , the grants arc waiting." he concluded that , " if we don 't expo e cudents to multiculturalism and diversity. when they leave Utah they will be hocked. They will not he able to fulfill leadership role in diver -c ituation , and will not he successful in their careers." |
