A year later, class registration site still without fix

It all ends today: The weeks of probing Penn InTouch, trying to switch out of that 9 a.m. recitation the system forced you into or the closed-out class you need in order to graduate.

The add period for the fall semester is over.

Today also marks the end of yet another semester the University let slip away without offering an immediate, usable solution to an aging registration system.

Still, the Office of the University Registrar, which did not return repeated requests for comment, has been working with the Undergraduate Assembly to address the issue.

Wharton senior and UA member Alex Flamm and two other committee members met with Information Systems and Computing as well as the Registrar last spring to try to give Penn InTouch a face-lift.

After examining the class registration systems at other institutions like Princeton and Yale universities, UA representatives came up with a couple priorities for updating registration: streamline course and timetable information and create a wait-list system that allows students to see their chances of getting into a class.

Flamm said that while the ISC, which had no comment for this article, seemed "receptive" to their ideas, representatives from the Registrar's office were more reluctant.

"The registrar basically said that when Penn set up Penn InTouch, [it] was state of the art," Flamm said.

"But," he added, "that happened 20 years ago. Their basic opinion was that they'll replace it, but not for another four years or so."

In the meantime, students have expressed a growing frustration with the system and its toll on their daily schedules.

Just ask Wharton and College freshman Taylor Bernheim, who tried to switch writing seminars during this semester's add/drop period.

"I felt like I had to be glued to my computer to see if a class opened up," she said. "It was very nerve wracking and stressful."

This is not the first time that registration frustrations have spurred students to take action.

Last fall, 2007 Wharton and Engineering alumnus Danny Panzer created ClassBuster, a Web site designed to alert students when a spot opens up in a previously closed-out class.

After Panzer unveiled ClassBuster in fall 2006, the University sent a message to all students telling them not to use the program, which they worried could lead to identity fraud, since it prompted students to enter their PennKey into program.

Flamm's team is meeting with both the ISC and the Registrar on Tuesday to touch base about both sides' plans for improvement.

In the meantime, students like Bernheim can only hope that something will be done by registration for next semester.

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