Harold A. Climer wrote:
>
>  I was wondering something. I started my college career at Texas A&M in
> 1967. Even at that time A&M had a computer registration system. Although
> crude compared to our standards today, it worked.
>            A student went to his advisor ( No women went to A&M at that
> time) got his list of classes and a tentative schedule. He then went to
> the dining hall and stood in line for each class he wanted. If the class
> he wanted was still open he got a punch card, if it was not he had to
> get a card for a section that was still open. After the student had
> gotten all his punch cards he got several more depending on a choice of
> meal plan, dorm room or whether he was in or out of state. He then took
> his cards to a card reader which read in his data and got a print out of
> his fees. He then paid his bill.
>         Included in this registration system was the ability to keep
> students from registering for two classes that meet at the same time.
> Also it had the ability to avoid room  conflicts.
>             A department sent in a list of times and room assignments to
> the registration system each semester. This allowed a department to have
> priority over it's own space and only allowed classes outside the
> department to meet it it's space after all the department's needs had
> been met.
>                 I have been associated with UTC for 23 years both as a
> student and an employee, and I have always wondered why we do not have a
> system like this.
> After all A&M 's system ran on an old IBM 360 computer, why can't we
> have something similar?
>
>

I'm not quite sure what features you are referring to in the comparison.

I assume you don't want students standing in line in the GYM or UC getting
punch cards to register.  By the way, did that system have something
similar to RAP?

The enroll program produces a warning when a student attempts to enroll
for two classes that meet at the same time. The student must acknowledge
the warning to proceed to add the class.  This feature was added several
years ago.

The priority of room assignments is not automated, so is outside of my
bailiwick.

Richard
--
Richard L Gambrell, Director of Computing Systems and Networks
Information Technology Division, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
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