The University's decision to phase out the paper Course Announcement Bulletin inspired a sophomore to print his own hard-copy course listing and sell it for $10.
But don't bother seeking out this black-market version of the course catalog, because we are not talking about a reaction to last week's announcement about changes to the distribution of the printed CAB. The then-sophomore in question was a member of the class of 2009, and his homemade bulletin was emblematic of general resistance to Brown's transition to an online course registration system four years ago. In fact, in response to a flurry of complaints from students and advisers, the Office of the Registrar began printing the paper bulletin again for the 2008-09 school year. At that time, students voiced concerns over the difficulty of using Banner, especially for underclassmen. As a sort of compromise, when the registrar's office reinstated the course catalog, they whittled it down to 180 pages, eliminating details about labs and sections that could be found in the online system.
Now that the CAB has once again been given the boot, supporters of both sides of the issue still put forth the same arguments. Paper's proponents say that in an online system, it is less likely students will stumble upon courses they were not already looking for. Advocates of the digital system point out that most students prefer to look up courses online, making a printed course catalog a waste of paper and University dollars.
But overall, the University's announcement last week failed to meet the same level of resistance from the undergraduate community that a similar decision provoked in 2007.
We appreciate the University's dedication to minimizing waste and its mindfulness in continuing to distribute the CAB to advisers and department officials instead of eliminating it completely. But we encourage the University to reconsider its decision to no longer distribute a printed bulletin to incoming students. Despite recent improvements, Banner can still be considered an especially confusing system to navigate for students looking up courses at Brown for the first time. The only thing a first-year might find more frustrating is scrolling through a PDF version of the course catalog on the registrar's website.
We also urge the University, as it invests resources and staff in developing electronic tools to replace their paper analogues, to streamline its existing online systems and make them more comprehensive and easy to use. Students now declare their concentrations online through the Advising Sidekick, but information about concentrations, their requirements and alumni careers is housed in several separate places — the Dean of the College's Focal Point page, the Office of the Registrar's website and individual department websites. Furthermore, while the shopping cart feature on Banner was inspired by the independently run Mocha course site, Banner has yet to supply textbook pricing information as Mocha does. The course catalog, in its printed form, contained concentration information in addition to course descriptions, a useful feature that was left out of its online incarnation. Today's students are perhaps more receptive to the University's forays into the digital sphere. Still, we are waiting to see the University's efforts online move beyond poor facsimiles of the paper tools that once were all we knew.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
