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.
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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."
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