Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 10:33 p.m.
Those who signed onto Facebook or Twitter around 7 a.m. on Friday may have encountered of frustration that many GW students felt over registration. According to statuses and tweets filled with expletives, a number of students faced a downed GWeb registration site.
For those Colonials with more than 30 but less than 55 credit hours, Friday’s registration for Spring semester classes was what some could call an epic fail. For whatever reason, when everyone clicked “Add Classes” at exactly 6:59 a.m., the system went into overload and jammed. Students were greeted with messages saying “System error” or were forced to go back and sign into the Web site again, and then flocked to Facebook to commiserate with others about the uncertainty of their futures.
When the site was finally up and running again, some students were able to access the classes they wanted and others, as is the case every year, were not. But the site’s shutdown further aggravated the situation.
This incident has merely highlighted the flaws surrounding registration. Though students raise concerns every semester, the system overload some sophomores faced on Friday is something that the University can address in the future. The University should be the figure GW students turn to with their registration issues, because no college student should have to update their Facebook status at 7 a.m. Friday morning.
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 3:31 p.m.
In the very first column I wrote for The Hatchet, I addressed the arguably disappointing grade GW received last year on its annual College Sustainability Report Card, or, “Green Report Card.” In contrast with GW’s previous grade, the University has made laudable improvements in the area of sustainability, but needs to address two lingering problems.
According to The College Sustainability Report Card’s Web site, GW received a B in overall efforts, an entire grade higher than last year’s C+. We share this year’s grade with our neighbors at Georgetown and American University, but GW now has the distinction of being a Campus Sustainability Leader.
The report card broke down the grades in a number of categories. In the areas of administration, student involvement and transportation, GW received A’s. With the formation of the Office of Sustainability in 2008, the hiring of a sustainability director in 2009, the prominence of such student organizationss as Green GW and the community’s reliance on 4-RIDE and the Metro, the University’s more extensive efforts are finally being recognized.
Yet the University failed in areas relating to endowment transparency and shareholder engagement. Unless GW specifically addresses these areas of concern, our report card will constantly be plagued by these low marks. Publicizing a list of endowment holdings and shareholder voter records, as well as forming a shareholder committee to address sustainability for the University are just some steps GW can take to improve the F’s we received in these categories yet again.
As a freshman, I urged the University to take such steps so as to improve the overall sustainability grade. While a B is a major improvement from last year’s C+, and the University is becoming a leader in the area of campus sustainability, I see no reason for GW’s overall grade to be constantly marred by two failures in relatively minor categories.
