Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVFRSITY OF MICHiGAN
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual oinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all retrints.
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URSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1967
NIGHT EDITOR: PAT O'DONOHUE
Registration Consternation
"The University administration
should be raked over the coals in
The Daily as long as it takes to get
an apology and a promise that this
never happens again.. ."
HE UNIVERSITY'S registration pro-
cedures-or perhaps the. lack of
them-prompted Prof. Nicholas Kaz-
arinoff of the mathematics department
to make this statement. Kazarinoff,
who is also a counselor in the literary
college, is not alone in his criticism of
the three-day registration hassle
which virtually every University stu-
dent faced this week.
. The usual sarcastic comments mut-
tered among students about the length
of lines and the number of adminis-
trative mistakes. were bitter and un-
forgiving. Faculty members, particular-
ly counselors, were equally outraged as
students related horror tales of five
hour ordeals in Waterman Gym, often
coming after extensive waits in coun-
selling lines and the turtle-paced pro-
cessional into the gym.
Why was this registration worse
than a,ny other?'
For one thing the University issued
new identification cards to every stu-
dent. Seven digit numbers on blue
plastic were abandoned for 10 dig-
Its-social security number plus a check
digit-on yellow plastic. Undoubtedly
the changeover will ultimately facili-
tate University record-keeping, but the
aggravation which administrative inef-
ficiency caused during the transition
will not soon be forgotten.
Students, who had not pre-registered
were required to pick up their new ID
cards in the Administration Building,
but the problem was there. With lines
winding up five flights of stairs and
coiling in front of the elevators, the
unfortunates were directed to Room
102, although most of the ID cards
could actually be found around the
corner in Room 514.
Signs scribbled as directives and has-
tily taped, outside 102 were more con-
fusing: "Check with your school first,"
"Check in Room 514 first," "Rackham,
A&D, Engineering .. ." The sheer idio-
cy of the situation was the fact that
these signs were downstairs and not
immediately visible to students. enter-
ing the Administration Building. Long
waits were unrewarded in Room 102
while 514 held the yellow tickets of all
students previously registered during
the Winter or Spring semesters.
N0 EXCUSE is adequate for ,this
fiasco. The University has been
planning the changeover for months
and knew well in advance the vast
numbers of students who would be
forced to seek their cards in- the Ad-
ministration Building. A multiversity
which has not yet realized that small
rooms in the basement of a building
cannot handle' thousands of students
is in sad shape. Administrators too in-
considerate to plan ahead deserve every
headache resulting from irate stu-
dents and registration mistakes.
However, recounting the trials and
tribulations of a registration nearly
over (although one official estimates
that "several thousand" will register
late) is fruitless. Rumors that 5000 new
ID cards were printed up using the
students' college entrance examina-
tion board scores rather than their
social security numbers are less em-
barrassing if left unverified.
The greatest concern is next semes-
ter's registration, and the one after
that, and the one after that. . . . Ac-
cording to Dr. Ernest Zimmerman, ad-
ministrative assistant in the Office of
Academic Affairs, registration lines
were no longer this year than in the
past and a 45 minute wait in line "is
not unreasonable in good weather."
Zimmerman also notes, however,
that the administration cannot always
anticipate registration problems and
that areas of, difficulty originate in
the counseling offices and the individ-
ual departments as well. Kazarinoff
points out "that lines at counseling of-
fices are very long because there are
not enough counselors. Further, coun-
selors should receive greater recogni-
tion, both financially and with in-
creased respect for the importance of
uae role. "The primary function' of a
university is to serve the students,"
said Kazarinoff. Insufficient, counsel-
ing facilities are no service.
PRE - REGISTRATION is another
problem in the overall registration
scheme. While it theoretically eases
the load in scheduling' and course
planning, many students are unable to
make up their minds as to what cours-
es they want to take six months later.
Thus the lines to see counselors, the
premium on drop-add slips, and the
push to get into the few sections re-
opened during registration for courses
closed during pre-registration.
Zimmerman points out that students
could be assured of a place in any
course and that registration could be,
handled efficiently using a summer
mailing. But such a revised system
would take the "flexibility" out of cur-
rent procedures. Drops and adds would
have to be fewer and students would
not be able to choose the time at which
they were to take a class.
UNDERSTANDABLY, registering 35,-
000 students can be a real ordeal.
But, it is painfully obvious that the
University's registration procedure is
not a paradigm of efficiency. If the
most bureaucratic of all agencies-the
U.S. Army-were to induct soldiers
te finesse that the University
registers students, escalation in Viet-
nam would be out of the question.
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"Yes, but what do you think caused the riots,?"
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FEW SUMMERS in memory have had the explosive significance
of these past several months. As the smoke settles in American
cities, the sands drift over deserted tanks in the Sinai Peninsula,
and the Monsoon season begins again in Vietnam, it seems a
strangely different world than the one we viewed at the end of
the winter term.
It was a busy summer for newsmen. munitions-makers, fire
fighters, and government officials. Uncle Sam sunk deeper into the
Asian quagmire as the bombing of North Vietnam was expanded
and another 50,000 men were sent across the Pacific. Meanwhile,
the U.S. maintained an official "neutrality" in the six-day Arab-
Israeli war. And as Americans sighed relief that Uncle Sam averted
involvement in another world trouble spot, the nation was rocked
by the bloodiest series of internal disorders since the Civil War.
The misery and destruction wrought by the three wars was
accompanied by a sense of awareness. A record number of Amer-
icans expressed disenchantment over the war in Vietnam, which
was becoming costlier in men (over 12,000 dead so far) and money
(about $30 billion per year). And the chorus of disapproval gained
surprising new voices such as Bishop Fulton J. Sheen' and Sen.
Frank Lausche of Ohio.
It was that other war, the disorder in America's beleaguered
urban centers, that provided an opportunity for many to reappraise
the nation's aims and values. Th word "priorities" became in-
1~-
"I Don't Unidershand F- Why Can't They
Behave As If They had Good Educations,
Good Housig And Good Jobs?"
WI u.~-j ' r &
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THE
"Well, I say we can't finance both the great
proletarian cultural revolution and the Vietnam
war at the same tine . . ?
SUMMER
OF THE
THREE
WARS
ceasingly important, and people began to wonder if we should spend
so much money around the globe when our own 'society was ripping
apart along an ugly color line,.
And the third war, the brutal Arab-Israeli clash, made us
aware that perhaps the United States and the Soviet Union don't
have all the power they thought they did in 'controlling smaller
nations. And it demonstrated that wars, as conclusive as they may
be upon the battlefield, do not resolve issues that transcend the
barbed wire borders. The powder keg is still in the Middle East;
its fuse appears to have been only dampened till the arms and the
proper timing reappear.
With all these world-shaking events, many of us will still
remember the summer by its sunshine-or lack 'of; .the golf and
the tennis and the swimming; the books we read (who didn't read
"Valley of the Dolls"?) and the books we meant to read but never
quite got to. And, of course, it was a summer of hard work so you
could return to school (only to find your earnings cleverly wasted
away with another painful tuition increase).
On the personal level, it might have been just another eventful
summer. But in Saigon and Hanoi, in Newark and Detroit, in Cairo
and Jerusalem, the memories of this summer will not be quickly
erased.
-ROBERT KLIVANS
Editorial Director
--MEREDITH EIKER
Managing Editor
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