No Time to Lose

Perhaps the Registrar is making a push to replace Google as the new internet wonderboy. It has, no doubt, climbed precipitously up the Nielson NetRatings list for most popular online destinations over the past several weeks as students have hit “reload” religiously in hopes of finally catching a glimpse of their long delayed grades. Alas, more than three weeks have passed since the last exams were administered, and some students are still missing their grades. The combination of a lengthier, but seemingly not more effective, verification process for grades and unusually recalcitrant behavior on the part of professors—who the Registrar suggests have missed submission deadlines—has left students frustrated. We hope better systems are put into place in the future.

Learning about grades this late into the semester can be more than a minor inconvenience. Aside from toying with the mental health of more obsessive pupils, the grade delays may have jeopardized summer job prospects or grant applications—particularly for those students who had really planned to turn a new leaf in the fall 2005 semester. Moreover, late grades meant that in many cases, students could not use their course performance from last semester to guide shopping period decisions.

More importantly, students who learn about their course grades so late into the following semester are effectively robbed of a chance to productively reflect on the courses they just completed. Indeed, the blame for this must be shared by the Registrar and course instructors. With the advance of each day, the demands of spring semester bear more heavily on schedules, and the likelihood of revisiting one’s performance on a fall final or paper decreases. In many classes, finals and papers are never returned to students unless those students seek them out. This pedagogically bankrupt practice should end, but in the meantime, learning about grades earlier will encourage the most eager or most surprised students to pursue explanations of their course performance and learn from their experiences. Often, end-of-term feedback can be the most rewarding feedback for students, and too often, students are deprived of it.

While we are indeed proud of the swanky redesign of the Registrar’s website, we remain too often unmoved by what’s under the hood. In addition to the disappointing delays in grade delivery, the Registrar’s attempts to better accommodate students with a more user-friendly site frustratingly lacks online transcript request processing. Such a feature is undoubtedly technologically feasible, and would save time for both students—who would be spared long walks and the experience of writing $2 personal checks—and the registrar—who would no longer have to process those checks and additional paperwork.

With a little effort from teaching assistants, professors and the Registrar, it would be possible to alleviate a great amount of stress for students and improve their overall learning experience.