Delta students jam phones in rush to register for classes (computer problems)

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Delta students jam phones in rush to register for classes

Wednesday, November 17, 1999

JODI McFARLAND THE SAGINAW NEWS

Technical problems made registering for classes at Delta College a challenge this week.

Computer glitches cut the phone connections of many who tried to register, said Student and Educational Services Dean Susan J. Montesi.

Because computer equipment was not ready to sort students by credits, all students could start calling Monday, the first day of registration, Montesi said.

The flood of calls jammed lines and slowed the process, she said.

"If I were a student at Delta, I would want to be the first one to register too," Montesi said. "Instead of maybe a thousand stu dents calling a day, we have maybe 5,000 or 6,000."

Delta registered 1,294 students Monday for winter semester, Montesi said. Classes begin Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Phone registration isn't as troubled now, and technicians are trying to upgrade computer programs to fix the glitches by spring registration, Montesi said.

For now, Delta has opened in-person registration so students have the option of coming to the campus records and registration office in the B wing.

Students can call 686-5860 from 7 a.m. to midnight all week and through the weekend, or register in person from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 17, 1999

Answers

Homer, you da man!

-- keep posting (real@news.here), November 17, 1999.

Homer--

similar to the problems that occured in LA Area recently (last week?). Callers ringing into local Studio for Pokeman info, took the studios(Universal?) system out, Warner's out and Disney's. It was an example of a small scale domino effect.

-- callingall (karlacalif@aol.com), November 17, 1999.


From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

I'm not sure what this has to do with Y2K except as an illustration of how ill prepared we are to handle manually those clerical tasks that we are used to having performed for us by computers. Even though this Delta fiasco does not appear to be a Y2K problem exact, there is a distinct possibility that many school scheduling computers may choke.

For what it's worth, I once lived very near to Delta College (in fact got married in their facilities used to train students in their School of Hospitality AKA Hotel/Restaurant Management). The school was widely known throughout the area as "Delta Day Care." I probably had nothing to do with the programming they're using to sort their students for registration! ahahahaha

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 17, 1999.


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