University of Virginia Library

Needless Registration

There was just no other way we were
assured by representatives of the Registrar's
Office. Students had to return to
Charlottesville a day early to personally
complete the registration process for the
second semester. The confusion over class lists
and who would be returning to the University
after the first semester's work dictated the
unsavory necessity of registering again in
Memorial Gym.

The comments of most students who
completed the simple process was "Was that
all there is to-it? If that was all there was to
it, we do not understand why some sort of
alternative registration plan could not have
been devised so that students might have had
one more day added to their very short
semester break. The required registration bore
a striking resemblance to the old calendar
days, days that students were required to
attend class before and after vacations. This
was to insure that all of the lads would not
bolt out to Florida a week or two early at
Spring Break and that they would return from
Mardi Gras sometime before Midwinters. It
was a hated and unnecessary rule. We hope we
are not witnessing its return.

Next year the Registrar should plan
another way of registering returning students
without requiring early return of students. We
do not believe that the process last Monday
was so complicated that students could not
complete it after their last examination or
during the first week of classes. The argument
for having it at all was that too much
confusion was caused by students not
returning to the University after the first
semester. We do not think that Monday's
process, which calls everyone back to
Charlottesville, solved the problems judging
from the confusion of class rolls during the
first week of classes.

Certainly the add drop card will remain
the bulwark of scheduling sanity despite all of
the efforts of faculty, students and the
Registrar alike. So why force an untimely
return to Charlottesville during such an
intemperate time of the year?