Open Discussion Thread
Nothing new has cropped up in sometime, largely due to many of the regular contributors graduating from Boalt. I have no idea what peculiar things may or may not be happening at Boalt, but if there is anything specific that deserves a post, or you want somewhere to anonymously vent, feel free to post it in the comments!
posted by McTwo at 1:12 PM
2 Comments:
I know we all hate Telebears, but has anyone ever been allowed to know why they run it like they do? I mean, setting up two phases, just so we can all rush and get waitlisted for pretty much every class and then let it sit and simmer for an entire month…what are they doing during this month that takes so long and is so important that we can't just do the second phase of Telebears sooner? Or, do the first phase later? I don't really care, it's just stupid to sign up and sit there for a month with nothing getting resolved and no chance to even enroll in more classes in hopes that I will, you know, actually be able to take one class in Spring. I'd frankly rather not be thinking about Spring classes at all at this point since I don't know anymore about my schedule than I did a week ago.
And do they care that by running it this way they are actually creating this ridiculous environment of scarcity and stress? That they actually incentivize everyone to drive up the waitlists and register for as many of the popular classes as possible, just in case, and not bother registering for the less popular classes? And that they are literally encouraging the development of this false representation of what classes people will actually end up taking? And that it is actually possible to design the system differently to NOT create this scarcity-based registration, even if you do know all along that everything will shake out in the end? It's not just the end result that matters, here! The process could be so much better.
And why in the hell are people waitlisted for classes that are not full yet? Last semester I heard it was to save places for transfers and LLMs that had not yet been accepted and assigned a Telebear time. Fine. But this is for spring and I'm assuming we don't have 100 more transfers and LLMs to accommodate. So who are these people we need to save space for? If Jane Doe gets assigned an early Telebears time, but can't register for any of the classes she wants that aren't even full yet, because someone with a later Telebears time needs priority over her, why do they not just give them an earlier Telebears time to start with? This system of giving someone priority on the front-end with the appointment time and then taking it away on the back-end by not allowing them to register for a 75 person class with only 30 people registered is the most inefficient thing I can think of.
(cont'd)
But please, someone, tell me how this system really is working just like it's supposed to and there's no possible way it could be more efficient. This is really designed to incentivize all the right behaviors, create the opportunity for a smooth process and it reflects all the best practices in the Registrar industry. Because I'm starting to suspect that these assholes in the registrar's office really do not bother to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of their process, but pretty much only care about it being easy for them and not having to actually, you know, improve their services to us who pay a whole fucking lot to deal with their shitty process. They really should be forced to publish an Explainer. It's the least they could do to ensure they are providing decent service to their customers.
I knew it was bad news when the registrar sent an email last week ending with "Good Luck!" This shouldn't be about luck, lady! This should be an orderly process with actual legitimate *reasons* for the way things are set up. And if it's not, because the science of registrar-ing is such a complex and challenging discipline in which the best minds are stymied, and "completely random" is the best we can do with current technology....then why the fuck do we have two Telebears periods plus the adjustment time? Just let it all happen on one or two crazy days in Nov, then the shake out period in the first week. But don't fucking try to portray like there is some "process" behind it with steps that need to be taken and priorities and order.
No seriously, the Registrar really is just the Wizard of Oz, right? All form and no substance?
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