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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 10, 1978)
Students program registration alternative By KELI OSBORN Of the Emerald Three computer science stu dents are challenging the University’s sometimes pessimis tic view of computerized pre registration and will try to develop a workable program for schedul ing students. Raun Boardman, Reed Lacy and Ravi Vedanayagam voluntar ily chose the project to fulfill re quirements for CS 423, practicum in soft-ware technology, computer science instructor Sandee Mitch ell says. “As long as they live within the class account, they can just about come up with whatever project they want,’’ Mitchell adds. Boardman, a sophomore from Cable franchise debated at Council By RICHARD SEVEN Of the Emerald The Eugene City Council heard testimony for and against a prop osed ordinance granting Tele prompter television a 15-year operating franchise. The Council will vote on the or dinance Oct. 23. The ordinance has already been passed by the Springfield City Council and the Lane County Commissioners. Groups opposing the ordinance centered on three main issues: the 15-year time granted the com pany; the absence of other cable companies in the franchise bid ding; and the absence of easy public access to Teleprompter facilities to provide community service programming. Don Chalmers, director of the Coalition for Community Televi sion. testified for the group. Chalmers said it would be a mis take on behalf of the public in terest to allow itself “to be tied into a franchise with a single company such as Teleprompter for more than 10 years. “Fifteen years could be couched into an increase of 25 years further down the road,” said Chalmers. Teleprompter’s attorney Dennis Pursell, said the 15-year franchise is necessary to offset the invest ments Teleprompter will have to make in its technical facilities. Pursell said any reduction in that time period could only cause higher subscription rates. Chalmers testified that 20 com panies around the nation could provide as good if not better cable service as Teleprompter. However, Les Swanson of the Metropolitan Cable Television Translator Commission, said his regulatory agency decided it would better serve the area to go with Teleprompter and fuse ter minating and penalizing check points every three years. Chalmers showed the council a petition that has been circulating around Springfield that would force a special election on the issue. So far, the petition has been signed by about 500 persons, half of the 1,003 needed by next week. E 3355 • Amazon HAPPY HOUR SUNDAY ALL DAY AND EVENING Medford, says the trio chose the project after reading of the University's current reluctance to adopt such a system. “We needed a project and fig ured that would be a complex one,” he says. “We could do it. It’d be difficult, but it can be done.” Because the three have fewer than 10 weeks to complete the project, they will use only certain kinds of information in their prog ram, Boardman says. “But our total data base would include more info than the time schedule,” he adds. The trio will compile the class preference lists of fictitiously re gistering students, then take pre cautions to insure that the stu dents have sought instructor’s consent when it is needed. To avoid over-scheduling, the data base will include class limits. Boardman says they will include student transcripts in the program, in order to determine whether stu dents have met class prerequis ites. “If it works, we can do more things in the future,” Boardman says. "We can update, expand our data base —take in drop-adds and so on — in order to keep the class lists current.” But there is one catch in the pro ject. The program they develop will serve but a small percentage of students, and only imaginary ones at that. “We will most likely fabricate 150 students, with all of their transcripts and so on,” says Lacy, a junior majoring in computer sci ence. University regulations prevent the three from using actual stu dent records, but Boardman says someone must develop a program before the University can imple IP Photo by Allan Silver Blatt Reed Lacy and Raun Boardman punch in commands for their model pre-registration system. When perfected, they hope the University will be able to adopt it in place of the traditional Mac Court smorgasboard. merit a working pre-registration system. “We re doing our best to write it up so the University could use it,” he says. Boardman and Lacy say the story ot their project has two end ings. “Either University officials will be too offended that we did it and will ignore us, or they'll decide it's reasonable." Associate Provost Gerard Moseley says the idea of students developing a pre-registration sys tem is not entirely far-fetched. "We solicit any help we can from the University community," Moseley says. "If we end up with a pre-registration system, we won’t have to start from scratch." DOS EQUIS The uncommon import. Discover the rich, distinctive taste of Dos Equis. The strong character of real beer, with a light, natural carbonation that makes Dos Equis easy to get along with, glass after glass. Dos Equis. The beer that stands out from the crowd. Just like you.
