With the departure of the class of 2010, an era has passed. They were the last to register for classes using the University's Stone Age pre-Banner system, under which even the smallest changes required trekking to University Hall. For some classes that filled on a first-come, first-served basis, students needed to get in line as early as 5 a.m. to guarantee a spot.
To hear our predecessors tell the tale, this burdensome system was a cherished rite of passage. Though most other schools had transitioned to electronic registration nearly a decade earlier, many feared that our unique culture of permissiveness might be undermined if the University had the ability to strictly enforce course caps and prerequisites. And as The Herald reminded us in an article last week, the Undergraduate Council of Students in 2007 condemned online registration as a serious threat to the New Curriculum.
In hindsight, the introduction of Banner more resembled the Y2K scare than the apocalyptic end of academic freedom at Brown. We don't quite understand why older classes failed to see Banner as an unequivocal improvement. Still, it's humbling to recall that students just like us can get it wrong sometimes.
The online system would be more concerning if professors were hesitant to give overrides. But in our experience, overrides are frequently granted, and the new system is working out pretty well. Banner has no doubt improved the broader shopping and course selection experience. Yet, as we saw again in these past two weeks, some additional tweaking could go a long way toward improving shopping period.
First, class syllabi should be available online prior to registration. The University has made major strides in towards this goal in recent years, but we eventually hope to see all courses post syllabi before the semester begins.
As it is, the short blurbs available on Mocha or Banner leave critical questions unanswered: Will this class require me to read a book every week? What subjects, exactly, will we be discussing, and when? Even an old version of the syllabus would be tremendously helpful for students considering shopping a class.
The University should also facilitate shopping by making it easier for students to shop classes that meet at the same time. This is generally not a problem for classes that take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Given these classes' frequent meetings, it is usually possible to attend several before having to make a decision.
For once-a-week seminars and Tuesday-Thursday classes, though, the problem is much more serious. For example, by the time a student can visit a Tuesday seminar, shopping period is already half over. Because of Labor Day, students felt this problem acutely this semester when Monday seminars did not meet until the day before shopping period ended.
We are particularly glad that the University eased the burden for those interested in Monday seminars by extending registration period for those classes until today. In the future, the larger problem could be avoided by splitting the first meetings of seminars and Tuesday-Thursday classes in half. Professors could then hold two back-to-back introductory sessions during the usual meeting time, allowing students to attend two different classes in one time slot.
Brown's move to online registration was long overdue. We should of course continue to monitor and improve Banner and our registration practices to ensure they continue to be consistent with the New Curriculum. But, especially come January, we think all will once again acknowledge that being able to register from our beds is a welcome improvement.
