Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

In the 2008 U.S. News ‘ World Report list of top universities and colleges in… Dear Editor,

In the 2008 U.S. News ‘ World Report list of top universities and colleges in the United States, Pitt is the only school among the top 100 that does not have available online course registration and add/drop.

As classes start up again this semester, I’m sure that most of us will be wondering why we still cannot register, add and drop classes over the Internet.

It’s 2008, the Internet has been widely available for more than a decade and nearly every university and community college in the country uses an online system for registering for and add/dropping classes.

I went to the add/drop office, the Dean’s office and the Registrar and asked if and when this convenience would be made available.

The answer was always this: If they are going to do it, you’ll be long gone by the time they do.

This is unacceptable.

There is no excuse for a university such as Pitt to lack a technology that is to a modern college as a cup holder is to a car.

I encourage all students to submit formal complaints to their respective Deans’ offices and the Chancellor as I will be doing despite my upcoming graduation.

This substandard aspect of our school reflects negatively on Pitt and makes us seem backward and behind the curve.

When I told my brother, a freshman at the University of Michigan, that our school lacks online course registration, he simply asked me, “Does Pitt have running water?”

Although maybe I shouldn’t complain.

I mean, even though I don’t have the most current means to schedule my classes, I can still go online to pay for them.

Sean Raymond School of Arts and Sciences