University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Errors, Racing and Erasing The two-day process of registration was one version of red tape Texas-style. Approximately 10,000 stu- dents waited to get in line in hopes of putting together the perfect course schedule. Days in advance, student bookstores, individual col- lege departments, advisors and the entire registration crew at Bellmont Hall prepared for the steady stream of baffled students. Each student began his plight by pur- chasing a 50 cent course schedule Bible. Later stu- dents were advised in their departments to decide upon a course load. Then came the hard part an outright encounter of the worst kind. Armed with signed dean ' s course card, ID and a num- ber two pencil, each student made his way into Bellmont Hall. Finally inside, the collecting of course cards and course bargaining began. For earlier entrants, going through the process may have been quick and simple, but for others, section closed blues were contagious. The let ' s make a deal atmosphere surrounded those persons willing to sell their souls for CH 325. After conquering the ramps, asking questions and pulling class cards was completed, students trudged to the final tables to surrender their cards for processing. They then found they had to return the following day to pay their fees. It ' s going to be a choice between OS 321 or E 3 The struggling to get into the necessary class, whether ACC 3 1 1 or E 306. continues until one is satisfied. 24

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onemaiion New Confusion The making of ID cards at Orientation is one of the first steps to becoming a new student. The thought of becoming just another number at the University is enough to frighten even the bravest of freshmen. However, summer orientation gave incoming freshmen and transfer students an opportunity to receive academic advice, information about UT and its services and to learn that others have similar problems. Approximately 4,200 students attended the eight week-long summer sessions, for a chance to make friends and become acquainted with UT. Sixty-six orientation advisors headed up activities for participants including campus tours, moonlight jogs to Memorial Stadium and preregistration for fall classes. The Union was an important part of orientation. Used as an area for meetings, tours of the newly-reno- vated building were held throughout the week. On Wednesday night before orientees left, the advi- sors presented the Absurdity Corps, a group of advi- sors, who gave a magic show and performed skits. After a week of acquainting themselves with the cam- pus and preregistering for their first semester, most stu- dents said that they felt as if they had made it over one of the first hurdles in becoming a part of UT. Handball courts and other available recreational facilities at Gregory Gymnasium are explained to orientees. Orientation 23

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n was one version fy 10,000 sin- ' ' pulling together V If one is unusually lucky and doesn ' t have to go through adds and drops, paying the fee bill not only unloads the wallet, but is the last stop in becoming one of 40,000. For students to whom the computer was unkind, cen- tralized adds and drops was one way to rearrange an unsatisfactory schedule. Approximately 10,000 students show up each semester at Bellmont Hall clutching fee bills, ID ' s and course schedules hoping to get the right classes at the right hour. Although adds and drops is not an easy and enjoyable task, student endurance to arrange schedules to near-perfection is astounding. Since adds and drops is invariably on the hottest day of the summer or the coldest of the winter, most students find the only way to put up with the weather is to dress accordingly. After waiting in seemingly endless lines for a chance to wait in yet more lines, comfort counts. Despite the fact that each student has to wait for what seems like (or is) hours, he must then run from room to room begging someone to find it within his mercy to reg- ister the poor scholar for a needed class. Finally, a defi- nite sense of relief and accomplishment overwhelms the triumphant student at the end of the day. Realizing that while the prospects could have been worse, they might have been better, every student hopes that next time the computer will be more friendly. For those who failed adds and drops 301, departmen- tal adds and drops would be the next step. This student finds a strangely quiet corner amid stacks of books in the Co-op. ei ig 0 uiea wJt ta uted dt tougll Adds and Drops 25