Many Longwood seniors, graduates, Honors, athletes, and approved students with disabilities woke up before sunrise on Thursday, March 24. Registration for classes was set to open at 6 a.m. However, students soon realized they were unable to access the classes for Fall 2011 because that option wasn't available. Students were only able to view the class list for the fall semester and when on the registration page, the only option available was for Spring 2011. The problem affected all the students trying to register, not just a few.
"I personally woke up 30 minutes early, scrambled to my computer and logged on to find that I couldn't even enter my PIN number," said sophomore and Cormier Honors College (CHC) student Gil Hall. "I then stayed awake for the next hour, pressing the refresh button to make sure I got the classes that I needed."
Senior Samantha Zerio recalled "frantically contacting everyone I knew who was signing up, in the hope that my computer was not the only one failing."
A sort of panic descended over many students. As more of those who were trying to register started realizing that myLongwood wasn't working, a stream of angry and frustrated comments flooded Facebook.
"I think they forgot ... just plain forgot that registration was today. They have us all up at 6 a.m. for nothing," wrote Amanda Haymans at 6:23 a.m. on The Rotunda's Facebook wall. Another student proposed that The Rotunda write an article entitled, "Tired Students Despise myLongwood For Not Working on Registration Day."
Other students complained that registration should have been at midnight, as it was last semester, reasoning that most college students are up that late anyway.
At 9:04 a.m., students received the first e-mail of two regarding the delay. "Please be informed that we are experiencing technical difficulties with the registration process and that the registration session that was scheduled to begin this morning at 6 a.m. was not made available at that time," read a message from Vice President of Information & Instructional Technology Services and Chief Information Officer Dr. Frank Moore.
"They need to open it when they say they're going to open it, and they need to send timely e-mails when the website malfunctions," said Jamie Leeuwrik.
Moore explained once they found out there was a problem, a team of engineers began working. "We went live at 6," Dr. Moore later said, "and at 6:20 we noticed there was a problem. We already had people here." From that point, the staff worked diligently to get the problem fixed.
Some students were more forgiving than others. "I feel like everybody got really angry about it and freaked out, but we should've known this would happen. I didn't get that much heartache over it," said CHC student Kristyn D'Angiolillo.
Despite the complaints that circulated student to student, Moore, and Registrar Glenn Parker both reported no complaints being sent to their offices on Thursday. "I had one student e-mail me who said she was concerned about getting her classes," Moore said.
Though technical difficulties proved frustrating for many students, everything eventually worked out. Once the day began and the university was able to get people on the job, the problem was fixed rather quickly. Facebook posts indicate that by 9:14 a.m., just 10 minutes after Moore's first e-mail was sent, the system was up and running.
"The registration issue has been resolved and registration is now available. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused," read a second e-mail from Dr. Moore, sent at 9:26 a.m.
Students across campus rejoiced as word spread that the problem was fixed. Some professors even let students register during class. Zerio said, "I was lucky enough to have Dr. Bates as my first class professor. He very kindly let a friend and I register for classes during Senior Seminar."
Despite the early morning problems, students were able to get their classes and everything turned out okay. Students improvised and still managed to register for their desired classes, even if they did lose a little sleep in the process.
Considering the fact that it is such a large and complicated network, and that this problem required such close work with the registrar's office, Moore said getting the job done in "just about three hours [was] truly remarkable.
