Column: Confessions of a PARIS Baby

Reminiscing is not something I do often or well, and I certainly do not advocate the return of quarter-mile lines that snake their way up Bennett Hall steps at 7 a.m. But thinking back to the days of my youth, there are definitely some things I miss as I dial up 3-PENN for the last time of my college career. First and foremost, I miss dealing with a person. When I first used PARIS in the fall of my sophomore year, I found it too good to be true. No more carbon copies, no more permit stamps, no more I-have-to-get-to-College-Hall-before-sunrise-if-I-want-to-get-into-History-48. But my gleefulness soon soured. That spring I tried to get into English 37, Shakespeare's Tragedies, but didn't get the course in preregistration. O.K., I thought. I'll simply sit in on the class for two weeks until the professor allows me to add it. But after two weeks passed, I went up to ask the professor if he could let me in and all he could do was shrug and apologize. The professor, a tenured one at that, couldn't let me into the class because a computer had more power than he did. That seemed a little strange. But I chalked it up to experience, and took English 35 instead. PARIS remained relatively friendly to me and my acquaintances for a while, but earlier this semester a friend of mine got a rather strongly worded letter telling him that if he didn't declare his major, the strange-but-friendly voice of PARIS would not welcome him. And then Student Health said if I didn't turn in my insurance and immunization forms, I would be closed out of preregistration. Again I felt that pang -- I was a number tabulated on a computer, a piece of data blocked from a mainframe. If the University wants to make sure that I declare my major, then it should strengthen its advising system, not put up computerized roadblocks. But frankly, one of the things I used to brag about to my friend at Harvard was that the University didn't pressure me into declaring my major. Harvard requires students to declare at the end of their freshman year, but I always felt good that my school allowed me as much time as I needed to explore and change my mind several times before I had to file any paperwork -- even if it took me until my senior year. I ended up declaring earlier this semester. The use of PARIS to force people to turn in forms and declare majors is at best impersonal, and at worst reminiscent of Big Brother. Penn with PARIS is not the kind of Penn I came to. It's a little colder and a little less friendly. Call me nostalgic, but I think the University needs to take a step back and rethink the way it's using its technological wonder. Peter Spiegel is a senior History major from Phoenix, Arizona and managing editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Laughter and Contempt appears alternate Wednesdays.

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