Student Registration with Punched Cards
By 1971 the University was undergoing transforming demographic changes and dealing with a series of tumultuous events. There were student strikes over the Vietnam War and tuition increases at the same time that the student body was changing from all male to coed, and beginning to shift from a commuter to a resident population. In the midst of this transition students were granted the power to cross-register between departments and undergraduate colleges. The latitude to cross-register for courses coupled with the ability to freely drop-add courses was a severe departure from the days of students being preassigned to fixed sections and courses.
To deal with the new registration freedoms the University had to devise the following stopgap procedure. Fr. Fitzgerald’s office produced a Student punched card for each student and produced Course cards for each of the available seats in a class. The Student card was given to the student in his/her registration packet along with printed schedule of courses. And a tray of Course cards (one card for each available seat) was supplied to the corresponding department. The student would then stand in line at each department and attempt to retrieve a Course card for a desired class. If there was seat available, the student got a card. If a seat was not available, the student would then need to shop. Needless to say the process was long and cumbersome and often lead to students camping out at night in the hallway to secure a place in line.
After collecting all his/her Course cards, the student would return their Student card and Course cards (one for each selected card) to the Registrar's office in their respective undergraduate college. The Registrars would then place the cards, Student followed by Courses, in a tray to be read into the computer system. Great care had to be taken to ensure that Student and Course cards were in the exact order.
Each Registrar in the individual colleges was very diligent and precise in following of procedures for the order of the cards but they were all unfamiliar with computing and how the system was designed to work. In one school the Registrar was so concerned that the Student and Course cards might get shuffled, she stapled the cards for each student together. Another Registrar paper-clipped the cards for her students, rendering the cards unreadable in the card reader. Unfortunately beyond a lesson learned, there was a long and costly recovery process.
By 1971 the University was undergoing transforming demographic changes and dealing with a series of tumultuous events. There were student strikes over the Vietnam War and tuition increases at the same time that the student body was changing from all male to coed, and beginning to shift from a commuter to a resident population. In the midst of this transition students were granted the power to cross-register between departments and undergraduate colleges. The latitude to cross-register for courses coupled with the ability to freely drop-add courses was a severe departure from the days of students being preassigned to fixed sections and courses.
To deal with the new registration freedoms the University had to devise the following stopgap procedure. Fr. Fitzgerald’s office produced a Student punched card for each student and produced Course cards for each of the available seats in a class. The Student card was given to the student in his/her registration packet along with printed schedule of courses. And a tray of Course cards (one card for each available seat) was supplied to the corresponding department. The student would then stand in line at each department and attempt to retrieve a Course card for a desired class. If there was seat available, the student got a card. If a seat was not available, the student would then need to shop. Needless to say the process was long and cumbersome and often lead to students camping out at night in the hallway to secure a place in line.
After collecting all his/her Course cards, the student would return their Student card and Course cards (one for each selected card) to the Registrar's office in their respective undergraduate college. The Registrars would then place the cards, Student followed by Courses, in a tray to be read into the computer system. Great care had to be taken to ensure that Student and Course cards were in the exact order.
Each Registrar in the individual colleges was very diligent and precise in following of procedures for the order of the cards but they were all unfamiliar with computing and how the system was designed to work. In one school the Registrar was so concerned that the Student and Course cards might get shuffled, she stapled the cards for each student together. Another Registrar paper-clipped the cards for her students, rendering the cards unreadable in the card reader. Unfortunately beyond a lesson learned, there was a long and costly recovery process.