The Great Debate . . .
Should we switch to computerized enrollment?
By Marilyn MCMULLEN Kansan Staff Writer
Almost everyone connected with the University of Kansas hates enrollment.
It is always characterized by closed classes, fruitless appointments with advisers and that epic odyssey through the Kansas Union to obtain class cards.
There are also the IBM cards (fondly nicknamed the 'green meanies' by some irate students) which must be filled out and turned in with class cards each semester. It's always the same old information, it's just that the cards seem to lose their validity at the end of each semester as registration cards do.
And finally there is inevitably the Great Computer Debate.
KANSAN features
Should we or shouldn't we switch to computerized enrollment?
Actually, compared to enrollment procedures of other Big 8 schools, the system at KU doesn't really leave students with too much to complain about.
The student body president of Colorado University wrote William L. Kelly, KU registrar, last fall saying a majority of the Colorado student body was dissatisfied with their enrollment system. They wanted an outline of KU's enrollment system for possible use at CU.
Kelly explained KU's enrollment system and said attempts are made each semester to improve it. Sometimes, he said, the improvements are noticeable to students and sometimes they are "behind the scenes." Changes have been made in the physical organization of the procedure and in the data processing vital to the success of enrollment.
10 KANSAN May 12 1970
Kelly said KU is growing so fast that it is difficult to provide adequate funds for the necessary increase in computers. He added that machinery has not grown proportionately to enrollment, even though the amount of machinery had increased over the past five years.
Fees, student and faculty payrolls, budgets and registration are all processed by computer, he said.
"It takes tremendous effort to collect computer data to adequately service a student in his college career," Kelly said. "The machinery used must be sophisticated and the amount of it must grow with the University."
"The gap is closing,but the need is always there before the supply," he added.
Kelly said the members of his staff have worked for a full year on two projects designed to expedite the enrollment procedure.
The first is a plan of collecting data on students without the use of green IBM cards. At present, both K-State and the University of Missouri collect student data on one card the first time a student enrolls. If any information changes, the student merely corrects the card at each subsequent enrollment. Although the University of Colorado utilizes computers for enrollment, the students must fill out seven or eight data cards each time they enroll.
Work has also been done on a method of pre-enrolling students. Kelly said there was hope that the system would be ready
for the spring-1971 semester, but said it would not be used unless there was a good chance of its success.
"Other schools have tried pre-enrollment and it has fallen apart, causing a reversion to old enrollment plans," he said.
Kelly said it also had been recommended that green data cards be done away with.
flipts. But no one would know the time of his classes until he received a copy of the computer statement.
And what of computerized enrollment? The use of class cards allows a student to choose a section. Computerized enrollment, in which a student would program his course selections on a terminal during enrollment, would deny him this choice. The computer fills sections evenly, and prevents individual schedule con-
"If computers are used by students for class selection," said Kelly, "the students will have to be very accurate so the computer would not be fouled up."
Missouri utilizes the terminal program, but students must still wait in lines to have a chance at the terminal. It then takes them about five minutes to complete their enrollment.
Roster sheets are available to instructors at KU at 7:30 a.m. the first day of classes. In other Big 8 schools they are not distributed until that afternoon, or until the second dav of classes.
The new school calendar year
Outstanding Woman views faculty, students
By ANN MORITZ Kansan Staff Writer
It's natural for youth to identify with someone they admire.
For most KU students, says Barb Blee, Bonner Springs senior, Chancellor Chalmers is such a person.
Miss Blee was selected last spring to serve on the Chancellor Selection Committee.
Just recently, she was voted Outstanding Woman of 1970 by KU women at AWS Honors Night.
have been no National Guard pushing the crowds because the crowds would have been allowed.
Miss Blee believes the chancellor and KU administration would have handled the Kent State situation differently. There would have been no martial law during the day, she says, and students would have had the right to assemble. There would
"I've never known our administration to give students an outright 'no' to any legitimate requests."
Miss Blee thinks Friday's student convocation was "one of the most worthwhile, together" things that have happened at KU.
"It all started with the Kansas Union fire," she says. "People from one end of Lawrence to the other—Greeks, independents, and all races—joined to help during that fire."
for the 1970-71 semesters will set new dates for functions, said Kelly, but would not change enrollment procedures appreciably. They will now have to be moved from the ballroom of the Kansas Union.
"We want to give students the courses they want to take," Kelly said. "That is not always possible, but it is the object of continued improvements and changes in the enrollment procedure."
Speaking of tomorrow's march at the State Capitol, she says "this is not a radical movement, for radical movements occur in the streets, not classrooms."
SORRY,
we will be closed all day tomorrow to reduce our entire stock...for our annual Summer Closing Sale.
25% OFF
33% OFF
50% OFF
Everything at least 10% OFF
SALE STARTS THURS.
COACH HOUSE
12th & Oread
1970 Jayhawker Yearbook 2nd Edition Distribution
May 18,19,20 Strong Rotunda
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