Friday, March 28, 2008
Implementing a new enrollment system and requiring professors to give grades out at midterms are part of an academic platform for the United Students senate coalition.
Adam McGonigle, Wichita sophomore and United Students presidential candidate, said the program the University of Kansas has now for enrollment was not student-friendly and was a bigger hassle than it needed to be.
He said that when students enrolled, they often needed a course catalog, a brochure of required classes for their major and scrap paper to figure out the classes they wanted and back-up classes.
“The amount of paper you use to enroll is almost an environmental issue,” McGonigle joked.
McGonigle wants to improve the system at Enroll and Pay with features like drag-and-drop class scheduling, prerequisites listed with classes and lists of classes required for majors and textbook prices. He said it wouldn’t require a new program.
Michael Gillaspie, Ashland junior and vice presidential candidate for United Students, said he wanted to get rid of the paper shuffling during enrollment.
“We want to create a one-stop shop for enrollment,” Gillaspie said.
McGonigle said he wanted to require professors to give out grades at midterms so students know where they stand in their class. He said many professors already provided grades, but others didn’t and students had to bother teachers to see their grades. He said there was no rule that required professors to hand out grades.
Bill Crowe, president of University Senate, said that McGonigle would have to bring this proposal to University Senate, where it would go up for review.
Crowe said he thought many professors would say that giving out grades was their decision on a case-by-case basis. He said that with thousands of courses and hundreds of instructors, they all had different ways of teaching their classes.
“Nothing isn’t discussable,” Crowe said.
—Edited by Russell Davies
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Comments
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
I am very confused. Enrolling is very easy for me. I think enroll and pay is already much better than it used to be. What paper shuffling do they speak of. Isn't it like opensections.ku.edu or something like that? all the classes, and times available. I know it does not have the prereq thing, but for my major, I just have one sheet of paper. and in regard to midterm grades, usually I just judge on how I did on my midterm exam, traditionally that would give you a good idea how you stand. the prereq thing is cool, but cant you just find that on your major page on the KU website? Nice try United Students, at least this platform is realistic.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
I'm sorry, what's the plan? I sit on University Senate and SenEx and Adam McGonigle has never presented us with any ideas about this or brought this up until now. There is a difference between being an effective student leader who accomplishes objectives and being a politician full of good sounding promises. Between this and the pool, I have a pretty good idea what I think of United Students.
United Students won last year. Adam McGonigle is a paid employee of Student Senate right now. Why didn't they get this done THIS YEAR?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
I went to your coalitions Web site to find out more information about the platform issue and all I found was the same note asking me to check back soon to fill out a survey that was there the last time I checked two months ago.
http://unitedstudents08.com/ideas.shtml
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
I apologize in advance, as I will be frank.
I think this may possibly be the dumbest platform issue I've seen this year. I could probably count a hundred things on this campus that are more important than this. I never thought I'd say this, but that stupid pool that students shouldn't pay for is more important than this. In fact, I would rather hand Lew Perkins a $20 bill than waste my time with this, well, waste of time.
“The amount of paper you use to enroll is almost an environmental issue,”
What paper? What the hell are you talking about? I print ONE piece of paper, my schedule.
“We want to create a one-stop shop for enrollment,”
What are you guys on? Do I currently have to shop around?
Also, I admit that the Enroll & Pay site is a little convoluted, however if someone can't figure it out by sitting down and working with it for ten minutes, do we really want them here? If you can't enroll, how the hell are you going to graduate?
Seriously, I'm starting to think United Students isn't even trying, or just thinks that KU students are morons.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
JConnor,
Hasn't Connect's Presidential candidate been on the cabinet for multiple years? And if so, wouldn't you ask him the same question?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
ConnectKU's president, Austin Kelly, has served two terms as treasurer. The treasurer isn't supposed to do anything but look out for the interests of student finances, which Austin has done. For example he negotiated a deal for the newspaper readership program that saved students thousands of dollars from previous deals. What has Adam McGonigle done for students?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
When is the facebook group "United Students = Better Enrollment" coming out?
I can't wait to join (blech).
United Students = Promises, I think would be more appropriate.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Wood speaks the truth.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
“The amount of paper you use to enroll is almost an environmental issue,” I think almost is the key word. It is almost an environmental issues because it is actually not an environmental issue at all.
I normally support many of US ideas but this is plain dumb. Go find something that students actually care about. . . you are starting to sound like a bunch of hippies. Maybe US needs their own bungalow now?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Why don't all of you just respect the opposing coalition's platform ideas? You are getting nothing accomplished by complaining about it. Jarrod and Jack, we all know how passionate you are about WiKUpedia. We all know that Adam Wood wants to put an end to student fees. Have you seen anyone from United Students calling your platform issues "the dumbest platform issues ever"?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
“The amount of paper you use to enroll is almost an environmental issue,”
I agree with Adam's statement, whenever a student needs to change sections, add or drop a class after classes has begun, they must fill out forms to get signed by the appropriate professors, this could be moved to electronic forms.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Wasting paper is bad, but not every use of paper is a waste. Sometimes you need a prof's signature and that usually requires pen and paper.
But yeah, enrollment isn't that confusing. I know it's a giant pain to open (oh my gosh) multiple windows on your computer, one with your ARTS forms, one with the actual enrollment website, and the timetable of courses. Life is hard and sometimes important things like enrolling in classes takes more than 5 minutes.
Things like this is why I have never and will never vote for student elections.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
No one calls our ideas the dumbest platforms ever, because, they aren't.
First off, they aren't platforms. They are initiatives of students who are working on things now. And secondly, they aren't dumb. If I had dumb ideas, I would expect random Kansan posters to call them as such.
I am passionate about WiKUpedia, because I know that when student leaders buckle down and do something, it is far and away better than promising to do something.
I am so tired of promises by United Students who pledge to get something done next year. My question is, what have you done for students THIS year? I think that leaders like United Students is the exact reason why students like Jizzybee haven't and won't vote.
I have yet to hear how Adam McGonigle has actually affected students this year. Why should students give him another year?
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Wow, I'm getting the impression that jarrodm and jconnor feel really threatened by United Students and Adam McGonigle. Why else would you constantly resort to personal attacks article after article? Sometimes I wonder if, instead of criticizing McGonigle for doing nothing, you should take a little of your own advice and find more constructive ways to get things done on campus than make non-stop comments on the UDK.
Minus one anonymous poster, it seems that United Students is the ONLY coalition whose leaders haven't resorted to the lame tactics of making personal attacks and rude comments in response to every campaign article. Be mature. Better yet, be constructive and mature.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Well said, Ashley.
Personally, I've never really had trouble getting my midterm grades, but I know others who have.
It will be interesting to see how this is implemented. They should do some sort of polling to determine what students want to have on this "interactive enrollment."
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
"Things like this is why I have never and will never vote for student elections."
Those are not my words. That is why I take issue with this platform issue.
Jarrod and I are seniors and aren't even running in the election. We just call 'em as we see 'em.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Jack and Jarrod- I'm pretty sure that Austin and Jason are just your puppets.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Hey guys, you need to stop whining about personal attacks. If someone calls another person a liar or a dick, that would be a personal attack. That has not happened.
I will continue to say exactly what I believe and so will every one of the senators from Students of Liberty. This is the only way to have open and honest debate.
I said this platform issue is (in a nutshell) stupid, and a waste of time.
I think a lot of students hold this view and there's nothing wrong with it.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Do you know what I think is interesting? The only people who ever comment openly with their real name are from Students of Liberty or ConnectKU.
What should I think about that?
Also, Robert (ilovelamp), that's what you get from reading Kansan.com. Trust me, Austin doesn't give 5 minutes to reading these comments.
And my question still stands: What has Adam McGonigle done this year that has a tangible difference to KU students? I'm just asking. I'd love the answer.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Enrollment isn't easy? It takes a couple of minutes, and the only paper I usually need is in the course catalogue, which is convenient. Beyond that, I use the part of KU's website which lists every class, sections, professors, and pre-reqs.
I need to know what's wrong with enrollment, and how they are actually going to fix it, before I can really evaluate this. I do think it is silly to say "Hey, we're going to do this", and then respond "Wait a while longer and then ask again" when the issue of what you actually want to do comes up.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
I am very disappointed with the platform ideas that United Students has come up with this year. They show a lack of creativity and innovation that I think the other two coalitions show. If anything, it's lackluster ideas like these that further alienate students from student elections. Instead of trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist (Enroll and Pay), trying to get students to pay for something this campus clearly doesn't need (a new pool) or trying to solve a problem that can't be solved by telling students they are breaking rules (Parking in the Union after 5 without a permit is a ticketable offense? didn't know that before US told me!), Maybe United Students should try a little harder and look for real problems on campus that could be solved.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
Perhaps United Students could have made it a platform issue to improve advising. Making Enroll and Pay easier is not going to solve the problem that many students do not know which courses they need to take. Perhaps if we had well trained advisors who knew all of the pre-requisites that every student needs, we would not have this problem. How about placing a hold on every student's account until they go and see an advisor? I need to be advised, I am graduating next year and I have no idea how many classes I will need to take. I think that is the more important issue here, and trying to improve enroll and pay just ignores that problem.
Enrollment overhaul on agenda for candidates
the entire time i read this article, i thought to myself: "are these the honest opinions or ku students?" enrolling is the easiest thing ever, and requires little to no paper whatsoever. i would bet that the brainstorming session at united students' meeting to formulate this platform required more paper than any student ever uses to enroll. will they be saying soon that wireless internet takes up too much space on campus, or that it pollutes the clean airwaves? someone throw me a life saver, please.
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