Mirror - Vol. 15, No. 21 - April 18, 1991

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 15, No. 21 Thursday, April 18, 1991 The Image Of Fairfield
New On-Line Registration Scores a Hit
Laura Coffey
Staff Writer
The final phase of the on-line
registration took place last
week with successful results.
The new registration sys-tem
was developed over a one and
a half year period of time with
input from the registration com-mittee,
administrators, faculty, and
students. Its purpose was to allow
students to leave registration with
a confirmed schedule in hand.
Robert Russo, University
Registrar felt that the new on-line
system was successful in its first
use and that it was "fair and more
efficient" than the past system.
"It is definitely an improve-ment
from the scantron sheets,"
said Russo.
The system was designed in
the hopes that students would re-ceive
faculty advising, get prefer-ence
to classes according to their
lottery number, and get the courses
they needed for their majors and
minors.
Senior Kathryn Freeman
said, "I was really pleased with the
new registration system. I was
able to get all of the classes that I
needed for my major and minor."
The system was designed
so that Deans, Chairs, and Area
coordinators could review the en-rollments
of classes as registration
progressed, and they could add
courses if it was necessary.
The system consisted of
three phases with Phase I as a
meeting time for students to fill out
a registration form with their advi-sors.
In Phase II, students in the
college of Arts and Sciences regis-tered
for their major and minor
classes within their departments.
The final phase of registra-tion
took place last week when
students completed their schedules
on-line according to lottery num-ber
and class.
Waiting in classrooms un-til
their lottery number was called,
they were able to look at computer
print-outs to see how many classes
were open, and they were notified
as soon as classes closed.
In the past, the Registrar's
office had a lot of problems with
the old system of scantron sheets.
Many of them were not read prop-erly
by the computer and had to
entered by hand. Some students
were also entering priorities on the
sheets that were not true and not in-cluding
second choices. As a re-sult,
they did not get enough classes.
According to Russo, the
new system give students "instant
gratification. They are able to work
it all out at the computer terminal."
Russo was very pleased with
the success of the new registration
system. "Students read the pam-phlets
on registration, and they did
not arrive before their scheduled
time," he said.
The monitoring of classes
worked out well especially for the
School of Business which opened
additional classes when some of
the business courses closed.
Russo stated that the new
system is a definite improvement
over the past system because
"seniors got a lot more electives
that they ever did before."
It enables students to sched-ule
their classes for the fall semes-ter
by mid April, whereas last year
registration lasted into May.
University Registrar Robert Russo helps an undergraduate reg-ister
for Fall classes last week.
Russo also expects add/drop
day in the fall to be much lighter.
He stated that there will be a clean
up day in which "students can come
in with notes from professors and
make any changes in their sched-ules
before finals."
This same system will be
used again this summer for fresh-men.
They will see their advisors,
plan their schedules, and go through
the process of registration.
Until now, the school has
registered for incoming freshmen.
"The new system allows freshmen
to choose the times for their classes
and gives them more options,"
Russo said .
He plans to meet with the
Deans to evaluate the system when
registration has concluded. "They
will decide whether or not to have
students register for their minor
(continued on p. 3)
Housing Lottery Shuffles Students Around Campus
Christina Hennessy
Editor In Chief
As Fairfield faces the first
year freshmen do not have squat-tor's
rights in the residence hall
lottery, the increased number of
students in the general lottery pool,
as compared to the numbers of
years' past, has forced the make up
ofseveral residence halls to change.
The lottery system got under-way
Monday with the women and
finished Wednesday with the male
residents.
Campion I and II went to
upperclass men and women, while
III and IV house freshmen women
and men.
Loyola I remains a split
freshman floor and Jogues contin-ues
to house both freshman and
upperclassmen. Jogues II North
will be upperclass women and III
North is upperclass men.
"The process was like a big
chess game as we were moving the
parts to get a balance," said Rich
Rossi, director of Student Resi-dences.
The impact of the Class of
'94 is still felt this year, as none of
the freshman were allowed to
remain on their floors as space had
to be cleared in Dolan for next
year's class.
"We had to adjust the num-bers
during the lottery to make up
for the deficiences in beds, specifi-cally
for women," added Rossi.
Students had originally par-ticipated
in an in-house lottery,
and all the switching and swap-ping
of rooms displaced the stu-dents
only by floor, not by build-ing.
Four women, however, did
not get a building in the Quad or in
the Orient during the lottery and
were placed in Dolan.
"I really was delighted with
the willingness of the students to
accept the outcomes in not the
happiest of situations," said Rossi.
Gonzaga closed first, with
Kostka following second and
Claver third.
The floor plans of the resi-dence
halls were officially organ-ized
after a meeting with the origi-nal
lottery committee, resident
Jesuits, and members of the Uni-versity
Council Community Life
subcommittee.
Originally Jogues was to be
turned into an all freshman build-ing,
and Loyola was to only house
upperclass students:
"There appeared to be the
feeling that there were benefits in
the influence of upperclassmen,
and most members of the commit-tee
felt this influence could be
achieved with more integration,"
said Rossi.
"The question that remains,
however, is if one floor is suffi-cient,"
he added.
The committee reconvened
to look at the options for a more
acceptable housing structure. Most
members, however, still questioned
the policy of freshmen housing.
"If people are in disagree-ment
to a freshman floors - why are
we continuing the idea," asked Rev.
John J. Higgins, S.J., executive
assistant to the President.
"It seems as though we're
changing the game plan in the
middle of the game," said Brian
Hayes, FUSA president and mem-ber
of the lottery committee, about
the original decision to change
Loyola and Jogues Halls.
Some members of the com-mittee
wanted more acceptable
housing for those students enter-ing
the lottery, which was the
motivation behind the original
proposal.
However, the committee
members were not necessarily in
agreement with freshman halls.
Statistics and data from this
year's freshman program will be
pulled together after this year, and
a recommendation will be made
by the University Council and
subsequently by the Office of Stu-dent
Services, as to the state of
housing for the Class of '96.
Requests for room changes
will begin April 29.
Dogwoods To Be Held Under the Stars
May Day Revived as Outside Extravaganza
Kevin Talz and Janet Malley camp out in front ofCardboard City,
an all-night vigil held to raise awareness of homelessness, last
week. See story p. 5.
Debra De Shong
Assistant News Editor
The weather is getting
warmer. The quad is filling with
sunbathers and frisbee players.
Dogwoods Weekend is coming!
This year, however, Dog-woods
will be different. Instead of
holding it in Alumni Hall as in the
past, the dance will take place under
a tent on Alumni Field on Friday
night, April 26.
"We just wanted to try
something new and see what it
would be like," said Brian Hayes,
FUSA president. "We wanted to
avoid all of the hassle concerning
Dogwoods, and we wanted to strive
for total participation."
By having the event under a
tent, it almost doubles the number
of people that will be able to at-tend.
"The tent can accommodate
1,600 people whereas Alumni Hall
only held 904," said Hayes. "We
hope this will prevent the long
lines for tickets because just about
anyone who wants to go should be
able to."
Dogwoods Weekend will
be a combination of new and old.
Instead of a spring concert, FUSA
is bringing back the May Day cele-bration.
"It used to be a big deal in
the past," said Hayes, "and we're
trying to bring that tradition back."
May Day will consist of
various booths sponsored by all of
the clubs funded by FUSA. There
will be a $2.00 entrance fee to the
festival.
Tickets for Dogwoods will
go on sale Sunday, April 21 be-tween
2:00 and 4:00 in Gonzaga
Auditorium and will be sold all
week during lunch.