Staff Editorial: Mission Impossible: Overrides

OUR VIEW: A change in the registration process  of this scale requires more resources and better timing on the part of administration.

You've used one before. Semester after semester, the blue override form has served as our golden ticket to guarantee spots in classes we need, or simply prefer. We've come to swear by them.  Thinking this semester would be no different, students were alarmed to learn that their use had been discontinued without warning.

In an email sent via HU Communications on Wednesday, Aug. 25, the Provost Office cited the signing of over 5,000 overrides last semester as an attempt to prove that the system is labor-intensive and ineffective.  

If this is the case, then the entire registration process that leads to the need for overrides in the first place is, in fact, ineffective.  

Ensuring a fault-free registration requires students to sign onto BisonWeb and look up classes before the registration period even begins. After writing down the classes desired, we must be online at 9 a.m. sharp to register.  

Forgot one of the course reference numbers? Forgot your alternate pin? Forgot to account for a time conflict? By the time such mishaps are resolved, the section is closed. The process is tougher for underclassmen, who must register at later dates and have less options for general courses.

These problems do not even account for the inadequacies at the administrative level. Classes required by nearly all majors, such as U.S. History, typically only have two to three sections per semester.  Because there is a shortage of professors, new sections cannot be added.

It is unfair, at the very least, to make students bear these burdens. Making matters worse, the first official communication from the university came three days into the new school year. No one was aware these changes would occur, and if so, it was strictly word-of-mouth.

News that affects the entire student body should never go unannounced. Students need this information to make necessary preparations so that they won't be short tempered with professors and staff.  

In the future, problems should be attacked at the source to truly provide an efficient solution.