Students, administrators
discuss registration issues
by Amanda Leduc
se news editor

   Datatel was blamed for more than registration problems during last week’s student forum with the president on SE Campus.
   Students and administrators met for almost two hours Thursday night to discuss campus concerns such as parking, mini-mesters, spring break and Datatel, the company responsible for the district’s new administrative software, Colleague.
   The forum was divided into small groups of students with two or three faculty or administrators to a group.
   While in the small groups, students asked about a timeline for SE Campus expansion, textbook prices and parking but these issues were relegated to lesser status when each group was asked to pick its top three concerns.
   After an hour of the small group,s students were allowed to direct their questions to Dr. Judith Carrier, campus president, and other administrators.
   One major concern was Datatel; all groups were passionate about the problems they had with registration.
   Juan Torres, SE Campus registrar, joked about not knowing the system was causing problems. He asked that students bear with his office as the staff adjusts to the new system.
   Dr. Leonard McCormick, dean of instruction, explained to the concerned students that Datatel was not only to blame for the problems during registration but also the lack of a Maymester this year and problems in the counseling center. Maymester refers to courses TCC has offered between the end of spring and the start of summer I.
   Administrators said a December term is on next year’s schedule as well as more summer CDI and ITV sections to make up for the lack of a Maymester this year.
   McCormick also addressed other schedule concerns such as the untimely spring break.
   “I think it was an ‘oops,’” he said.
   Spring break was scheduled to be the same time as one of the surrounding school districts. By the time it was obvious to TCC administration that the timing was off, McCormick said, it would have been harder to change the schedule than leave it. In addition, many faculty and staff had already made vacation plans and bought airline tickets based on the published dates.
   When the smoking issue, which becomes a major debate on the SE Campus each semester, was brought up, Carrier explained again that SE is a non-smoking campus. Carrier pointed out that the benches provided outside are for those who feel they absolutely must smoke.
   “Students are welcome to smoke in their cars,” she said.