THE University Daily KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Section 2 Campus Lifestyle
Computer enrollment to begin this fall for spring semester
By CANDICE SACKUVICH Staff Reporter
After the fall semester enrollment is completed, KU students never will have to wait in long lines at Allen Field House or scurry from table to table picking up class cards again.
In November, students will be able to enroll for the spring semester in approximately six minutes, said Gary Thompson, director of student records and registration.
A new enrolment center is nearly completed in the east wing of Strong Hall, room m. It will house computing equipment for the first early-enrollment system at the University of Kansas, Thompson said.
RICHARD MANN, DIRECTOR of institutional research and planning, said 15 computer terminals and three terminal printers would be installed in the Enrollment Center.
"Twelve of the terminals will come from the University of Kansas Medical Center, which has been renting them from IBM for a number of years." Mann said.
"A student will be able to walk in, sit down with an operator at a terminal and be enrolled within three to six minutes."
Thompson said that the spring timetables would be available about two weeks before early enrollment would begin and that some schools might start advising then.
Each student will receive only one enrollment card, which will include computer-printed information such as name, address, school, division and level codes (r the coming term and an appointment time to report to the Enrollment Center, he said. Alternate enrollment times will also be printed on the card, he said.
THE OFFICE OF STUDENT records
and registration will distribute the enrollment cards in alphabetical order to the deans' offices for undergraduate students and students in the School of Law and the School of Social Welfare, Thompson said.
Graduate students' enrollment cards will be sent to their departmental offices, he said.
"Undergraduates will pick up their enrollment cards at their deans' offices when they pick up their folders for advisement," Thompson said. "Graduate students can pick theirs up at their departments."
Students will have to get their advisers' signature and the deans' stamps before they go to enroll, which will be a quicker routine than usual, he said.
"Whereas, at Allen, 500 people were scheduled to go through the enrollment process every half-hour." Thompson said, "the new system is designed for 18 people to enroll approximately every six minutes. With 15 computer-terminal stations, there should be little waiting."
EACH STUDENT WILL receive a computer print-out of his class schedule when he enrolls. He will then pay fees and register in January, Thompson said.
"One advantage of the system is that departments and deans will be told about twice a week how quickly their classes are being filled," Thompson said. "They would have more time than in the past to make adjustments accordingly."
He said that departments would still set maximum class sizes but that class cards would no longer be issued.
A period has been designated after enrollment for early dropping and adding of classes. If students do not make changes then, they can do so the first day of classes, he said.
"A STUDENT WHO IS contemplating changing schools should do so early, such as in September, because enrollment cards are sent to the school the student is assigned to for spring." Thompson said. "They will want to go through the advise- ment program of the school they will be in next spring."
An opportunity for residual enrollment will be in January, Thompson said. It is for those fall students who could have enrolled early but did not, he said.
"I don't think it would be wise to wait until January to enroll because there will be new and transfer students enrolling then." Thompson said.
"students enrolling in November will be spread out over three weeks. In January, they will only have two days, and there may be some long lines then."
Robert Cobb, executive vice chancellor, said the idea of an early-enrollment procedure had been debated at KU for 15 or 20 years.
"IN THE EARLY DAYS, there was not a lot of consensus in favor of the system," he said. "Some students enjoyed the camaraderie at enrollment. Many juniors and seniors enjoyed the bargaining for classes that took place when sections filled."
Other students, he said, detested the Allen Field House experience, especially on hot days.
Cobb said that another problem with the idea of early enrollment in the past was that "it was a very expensive system in the early days to set it up so that freshmen and sophomores could still have relative freedom of choice."
"Then, many colleges with early-enrollment systems handed those students their pre-printed schedules," he said. "They could not choose their classes."
The system is less expensive now, Cobb said, because technology has changed and the University is set up to go on line.
"Also, the price of computers is one area of the economy in which the unit price has gone down," he said.
Cobb said there was a greater consensus in favor of the early enrollment system now.
"Its time has finally come," he said.
Special to the Kansan
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