Is anyone there?: Scheduling meeting during registration not best move

Students, especially seniors, need access to the registrar’s office on registration days to troubleshoot problems.

So it is unfortunate that the office scheduled a meeting on the seniors’ registration day Tuesday from approximately 11:45 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

During this period — in the middle of the registration day — seniors were unable to reach the office to have any questions addressed.

This winter, the registrar’s office moved registration to weekdays rather than Saturdays.

This tended to interfere with students’ class schedules but ostensibly ensured that students would be able to reach the registrar’s office if they needed.

So in light of this change of philosophy, holding an officewide meeting on registration day was not the best decision.

Yes, this was an important meeting for the registrar’s office. The entire office was interviewing a candidate to fill the permanent position of registrar.

“The scheduling that had been done to bring these candidates in was based on availability of all of those who needed to meet with the candidates,” said Roberta Kelly, interim registrar.

It is understandably difficult to schedule a meeting based upon the availability of an entire office. And the University should make finding a permanent registrar a top priority.

But the fact that Tuesday was a registration day should have played a more significant role in scheduling the meeting.

More generally, the registrar’s office is not doing all that it can to be a visible and active presence on registration day.

The office should consider ways in which it could do this.

The Registrar’s Office is located in SASB North — far from students taking classes on North Campus.

Perhaps a presence in the Student Union or near the Pit could be helpful for students. They would be able to conveniently seek help during registration. Kelly expressed interest in those proposals and seemed genuinely interested in taking steps to make the registrar’s office more available to students.

Hopefully the department will do better next semester to improve access to students during registration — especially when it is most needed.