I decided to take my unpleasant experience of spending 7 hours trying to access MUGSI/SOLAR today and share it with the new President of McMaster, Patrick Deane. If you would also like to join the call for a decent course enrollment system, you can email Dr. Deane at [email protected]

Here's my letter:

Dear Dr. Deane,

Congratulations on your recent appointment as President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster University. I imagine you have many new plans for the university. It is my great hope that revamping the university's online course registration system will be on your short list of things to do!

Although you are new to your position, you may have already heard about students' great dissatisfaction with the MUGSI/SOLAR system. I wanted to share with you my own experience of spending 7 hours online today attempting to access the system. Based on the hundreds of comments posted to the MacInsiders forum, I understand that my experience was not uncommon.

I am a mature student, looking forward to completing a second degree at McMaster in labour studies. I couldn't help but reflect on my first experience as an undergraduate student in 1989, long before computer registration was possible. Although students did have to register for courses in person at the university, it was a relatively quick and painless process. As I recall, it took maybe two hours tops. More than twenty years later, we enjoy such technological progress -- but appear to have taken some steps backwards in certain respects. Surely there must be a better way, systems that other universities use to process student course enrollment in a more reasonable manner?

In your appointment announcement, you spoke about your pleasure in coming to McMaster as it "combines very high academic standards with innovation, creativity and an openness to new ways of doing things." Perhaps we could put some of that innovation, creativity and openness to new ways of doing things to the test in designing a new course enrollment system? It could be a contest to build the best course enrollment system - with prototypes that students could test out and vote for their favourite system.

Thank you for considering this issue. Best of luck with your new position at McMaster.

A noble cause, but consider that unless your looking at a PHD, you won't ever see the changes.

Im all for this

I absolutely support this. I thought at first it must have just been my frustrations or bleary eyes that were leading me to believe that MUGSI was worse this year than last. But no, after seeing that my attempts to access MUGSI (abandoned after nine hours of trying without any access) were commonplace among many students, something MUST be done.

It is unfathomable to me that I pay 7000 dollars a year to an institution (which in turn paid Peter George over half a million dollars last year) cannot formulate a better system. In fact, it is simply untrue. McMaster CAN implement a new system, it has just chosen not to. How is it that a school that prides itself on the sciences is SO far behind in registration and administration. Other Universities are leaps and bounds ahead of Mac and students are registered much more efficiently. We can't even get a straight answer on how many people the system can accommodate at once.

Quite frankly: It's bulls**t.

But it will only change if we ALL do something about it. Letters. A rally. SOMETHING. The incumbent MSU president needs to be more concerned with issues of real importance like this one which affects every student.

....and now, back to the red screen of death.

I think you should have also included a little note about how the SRA and the MSU are completely incompetent in these matters. MUGSI has been a problem for years, yet the people who are supposed to be representing us seem to not be putting a lot of emphasis on matters which students care about most. I have friends in the SRA, and I always hear from them how they just came out of a 16 hour meeting, acting like they're so special and do so much for the university's students, when in reality they really don't do much of anything important and probably got nothing done in those 16 hours.

Nearly everybody in both organizations are keeners and try-hards, they're in it so they can add it on to their resume and so they can go around telling everybody they know how they just came out of some ludicrously (and needlessly) long meeting, hoping to garner credibility and seem important for once in their lives.

Originally Posted by Souldier

I think you should have also included a little note about how the SRA and the MSU are completely incompetent in these matters. MUGSI has been a problem for years, yet the people who are supposed to be representing us seem to not be putting a lot of emphasis on matters which students care about most. I have friends in the SRA, and I always hear from them how they just came out of a 16 hour meeting, acting like...

lol who are you? steps2health's new account or something?

Useless. It will never work, they will just say to wait your turn for MUGSI/SOLAR. Its been like this for years, with students complaining each year.

Originally Posted by andrew22

lol who are you? steps2health's new account or something?

I have no idea who that is. Please don't ask irrelevant questions.

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Useless. It will never work, they will just say to wait your turn for MUGSI/SOLAR. Its been like this for years, with students complaining each year.

It won't be easy - sure. Get enough people (and seriously, what undergrad doesn't hate MUGSI?) to actually make a collective voice about it - at that point you have to be heard.

I agree there's strength in numbers - and had 7 hours to think about it today! Also think that it should be an issue championed by the student union. There must be other schools with better systems. How could they be worse? I'll post Dr. Deane's response if I receive one.

Originally Posted by Beth

I agree there's strength in numbers - and had 7 hours to think about it today! Also think that it should be an issue championed by the student union. There must be other schools with better systems. How could they be worse? I'll post Dr. Deane's response if I receive one.

There was a post (I think by Finlay) that said McMaster is the last university to upgrade their registration system.

Petition, no ?

Originally Posted by eleduc

It won't be easy - sure. Get enough people (and seriously, what undergrad doesn't hate MUGSI?) to actually make a collective voice about it - at that point you have to be heard.

Your gonna have to justify why they will have to spend big bucks so you can access MUGSI/SOLAR 1 day of the year with no problem. I know it sucks, but the university isnt going to invest in something because students have an issue one day of the year.

Originally Posted by jhan523

There was a post (I think by Finlay) that said McMaster is the last university to upgrade their registration system.

In Ontario Universities I should add...

so i had an idea but its prob not gonnna work but what if the entire undergrad maybe even grad doesnt pay their tution.... like seripiosuly wut if like no one attends mac next year until they fix solar... that wuld make a HUGE statement. i also think we shuld exploit media. if the story is critical enough to tarnish macs reputation, they might do something