Talking Out Loud
Shellbie Wilson

It's that time of year again… the time when you just begin to think you're finished with line-ups or you are just starting to settle into your second semester classes and, as many students will say with a groan, time to pre-register for next year's courses. As senior students can attest, pre-registration is a frustrating hassle that amounts to not much more than an aggravating waste of time.

Here's the process: pick up forms, pick courses, line up...line up...and yes, line up...get signatures, hand in forms, pick up forms, hand them in again at 202, find out four months later you didn't get into anything you needed, line up again and eventually choose anything that fits into your schedule and nobody else wants.

This supposedly efficient system of administration brings about a few questions. First of all, what exactly is the point of lining up to get signatures if it doesn't even ensure you a spot in the course?

Secondly, how is it that students taking courses as electives somehow get on the course list before those who need the same course for their major? The latter seems to cause the most problems for senior students.

As many students can confirm, trying to work your way into closed required courses can become quite tedious and often results in the demeaning task of begging the professor. How exactly can we be expected to fullfill program requirements when half of the program is closed to us because of a lack of space?

Finally, would it not be easier to deal with either our department or the Registrar's Office, instead of both? In the supposed age of technology, it can't be too difficult to register in one office and have them send the course information to the other office, as opposed to running forms back and forth.

Unlike other schools, Laurier's method does enable students to be somewhat flexible while choosing how their schedule will be laid out. However, this isn't much of a comfort when the courses aren't the ones you want.

So how do we fix it? Ideally, filling out a single pre-registration form and simply dropping it off in the appropriate department would be sufficient to replace line-ups and unnecessary signatures. Class lists could then be made; those requiring courses having first shot, then those in upper years, then anyone who chooses the course as an elective.

Next week, the joys of pre-registration begin and the battle for who can hand in their forms the fastest is on. Don't worry about it too much though. No matter how fast you get there you're still guaranteed to be back in the registration line in September, trying to fill the empty schedule spaces.