Departments online to drop-add system

Ian Mayer Arizona Daily Wildcat Greek mythology professor Jon Solomon (center) is overwhelmed Wednesday by a sea of students attempting to drop/add his class in Social Sciences 100. A new system that allows students to drop/add from a computer could reduce these paper work rushes.

Many University of Arizona departments are now equipped with an intranet system that connects straight to the registration office's mainframe system, said Associate Registrar Judy Mobasseri. The new system allows departments to drop and add students from classes without using drop-add forms.

"It only seems logical," Mobasseri said. "We think it's a better service to the student if they can be talking to a department and decide this is the class they should be in, and be right there where you can add them."

About 1,540 drop-add forms were processed last Wednesday and Thursday.

Mobasseri said the number of drop-add forms processed each semester can be misleading because "some students will submit a separate form for each action while others will put several on the same form."

The Registrar's Office handled 23,393 drop-add forms in the fall of 1997, according to its statistics.

"We are tracking the monthly account for spring with great interest - more departments are doing drop-adds within the departments," Mobasseri said. "Most importantly, we think if there's a reduction in the number of forms (the registrar's office processes) it means that the students are being served in the departments and it's more convenient for them."

Evey Weissman, administrative secretary in the Department of German Studies, said the change is going to help the university.

"I like the feeling of being able to help somebody at the time that they need it," she said.

Weissman did, however, say the new system has its drawbacks.

"It does get confusing for the instructors because they don't know how many people they'll have in their class from one day to the next," she said.

The Media Arts Department was a pilot area for the system.

"We've been doing all of our drop-adds through the department altogether, and then we can also drop students from other classes if they ask us to," said senior office specialist Pat Varney. "I think that this system makes it easier for the students - they don't have to go running around."

Erik Krywaruczenko, a pre-pharmacy sophomore, said he becomes impatient when he has to stand in long drop-add lines.

"If I'm fishing and I don't catch a fish in five minutes," he said, " I take the bopper out of the water."