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Show Students check their schedules in the Registrar's office. Secretaries use electric key punch machines to transfer registration data to cards. The Univac 1108, which prepared Spring Quarter schedules, was not obtained only for registration, but is primarily used for other business. Actually, it takes the computer only one hour to run through 12,000 schedules-so the problem of registration takes up very little Univac time. Throughout the whole process of registration the computer did basically two things. It assigned students to classes which they had asked to have, and it compiled and printed out conflicts, errors, overloads and underloads of classes. The computer acted as a bookkeeper and a statistician for the Registrar. Its speed and efficiency-one hour to make the final run and twelve hours to print it out at ten lines per second- opened the way to reduced rather than increased disappointments for students at registration time and to a better knowledge of the desires of the student body. Out of 73,453 class requests, 98% were satisfied. The two most unpopular class times as indicated by the free time blocks entered on the request schedule card were at 7:45 A.AA. and 3:20 P.M. Perhaps the biggest objection to a system of computerized registration is the dehumanization of the educational process. But instead of dehumanizing the registration process, the computer has personalized it by recognizing and complying with the wants of the University student body. Clarence A. Reeder Registrar |