Technical Difficulties

Maybe the IT Department is run by students:


1. Originally this was going to be a post about grading, which was meant to include an amused aside comparing when grades are due (Monday the 9th at 10am) with commencement (some time this coming weekend). But when I went to the university's web page to find the date/time of commencement I COULD NOT FIND IT. There are currently NO EVENTS in the university's online calendar of events. There is, however, a headline alluding to someone receiving an honorary degree on May 7, so I ASSUME that's when commencement is.


2. While I am ranting about my university's terrible web page, I will relate another anecdote. One of my students forgot to give me something that she was supposed to, so I was going to send her an email reminder. She is not listed in our University's newly revised online directory (and I was using my office computer so don't blame on/off-campus privacy issues). I tried the "advanced search" option, clicking "student search." I asked the secretary with magic registration powers for help; she couldn't find my student either -- not even when she searched by student ID number. Why do we have an online directory that doesn't include all the students?


3. You know how three's a charm? The registrar has recently "improved" the online registration system and the online timetable. When I try to get a pdf timetable of fall classes, I get 500 Internal Server Error java.lang.NullPointerException. When using the "search for classes" feature, clicking on a class will take me to the Oracle Portal Builder Welcome page. Pressing the back button results in a 501 Method Not Implemented.

ps. As not all the students have taken the final yet, you shall have to wait until Wednesday for the amusing responses. All I can say now is that one student that the fourth dimension could be used "by putting doors on enclosed objects such as refrigerators and being able to reach in, or even houses."