bhilden@druxj.UUCP (HildenbrandBE) (04/20/84)
I feel compelled to respond to the flames I have been receiving on my note about life in Madtown. I am not making any personal attacks just stating their origin. First off, Mr. Horton left UW-Madison over 5 years ago, needless to say a few things have changed since then. Secondly, I was addressing the registration problems faced by undergraduates not graduate students who 1) usually take most of their courses from one or two departments 2) have high enough priority to get any class they want. Mr. Perlow incorrectly stated that registration was "on-line". He obviously never took any courses outside the Comp Sci or EE departments as they are the only departments on campus that use computers for registration. Incidentally, these "on line" systems are not linked to the administrations computers and are thus only a more glorified means of bookeeping. OK, why do I know all this information? Because I was involved in the spring of 1983 in a task force formed by the Chancellor's office to study current registration procedures and to address the $64,000 question of whether the UW should go to a computerized system. Also, I worked registration week for the Comp Sci department as part of my TA obligations. You should see the look of utter hopelessness on underclassmen when you inform them that their eigth choice for a given course has been closed. As far as registration for undergraduates are concerned, it can be a total nightmare for freshman and sophmore students. Why?, because they must visit each department to get enrolled in a course taught by that department. If they have a time conflict because a choice of theirs was closed, they must revisit that department or several department to sort it all out. Add the fact that the campus is 2 miles long by 1 mile wide and that long lines exist at many departments and you can have a mean and ugly situation for underclassmen. With regards to Mr. Perlow's comments about the 11/750 he probably doesn't remember the 4 hour compiles or the summer when the machine was so slow that you couldn't login because the login procedure would time out before you could complete it. Hey, I'm not trying to read you guys the riot act, UW-Madison is an OK school and all indications are that its getting better, I guess I feel sensitive to the needs of the undergraduates, after all I was one twice. Bruce Hildenbrand ATT ISL Denver p.s. - with regards to registration methods, I favor a pre registration performed the previous semester where students are guaranteed the courses they desire but, NOT necessarily the time slots. It has been my observation that many students decide on which courses to take by the times they are offerred rather than the content of the courses themselves. is available
ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow) (04/20/84)
-- >> With regards to Mr. Perlow's comments about the 11/750 >> he probably doesn't remember the 4 hour compiles or the >> summer when the machine was so slow that you couldn't >> login because the login procedure would time out before you >> could complete it. How could I forget? I guess I found the situation so ridiculous (on top of everything else, the IDM link for the DBMS class used to crash the slovax hourly) that I reasoned, "well anyone could get these assignments done on a real machine--where's the challenge in that?" Hey I remember putting a cc -c for a 50-line module in the background once, going over to Union South and watching a THREE HOUR movie, coming back, and having gotten only a few seconds CPU. Back in my day, sonny... So lighten up. No one is ignorant of the problems. The poster of the above quote is now at a Bell Labs site (or what was one before the breakup), so he too must have more than survived his experience. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 20 Apr 84 [1 Floreal An CXCII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7261 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken *** ***