Jeff Kell wrote:
>>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.
>
>And UTC did just that through Fall of 1976.  We went online for Spring
>1977.  Very centralized, very crowded, and generally annoying lines.
>And 35,000+ cards is a very unmanageable data set, figuratively and
>literally :-)
>
>Jeff (has carried cards back from Mac Gym to Hunter) Kell

Amen, Jeff

My early 1970's experience at the University of Minnesota (60,000 students,
one central location for cards - try standing in THOSE lines for cards) was
that students would grab cards for their friends.  This circumvented the
"wait for your enrollment time" restrictions quite effectively.  (Ex:  if I
had a friend with an early enrollment time, and I wanted "Tennis", and she
didn't, she'd sign up for Tennis to get the class cards, then give them to
me, cross off "Tennis" from her paper copy, and I'd add it to mine after
seeing an advisor but before seeing the Bursar (10 windows max there, too -
minimum 2 hour wait))

I like the online system MUCH better - I can get to it from my office - I
don't have to walk someplace!

Bottom line:  nothing will be perfect.  Our folks are doing the best they
can.  They have provided us with a very good system, and we should be
thankful we DON'T have to use cards anymore.  (Ever drop a box in the rain??)