Category: Academic

I am always eager for registration to open, its just something I do, I like being the one to devirginize a course and takes its first seat. Due to problems mentioned in the previous post, I do not even know if I will be able to register for classes, but I am sure going to try :-). I can barely sit still, I am bouncing around (and talking way too much) because of the excitement. I’m starting to think that I need to get fucked or something.

I think part of my excitement is coming from the fact that I have decided that I do not believe that I have been singled out by the registrar to be screwed by the previously mentioned issues, as well as the fact that the pre-requisite thing for online majors seems to be in place now, only its not in place. There is a major restriction on the online courses, which just appeared like yesterday or today sometime, which means that someone is making adjustments and preparations. As long as my advisor is not lying to me about the PIN number thing (which would likely indicate the registrar is throwing out that process for now), then I should be able to register with no problems.

All I know is I will feel better when Banner thinks its midnight (should be about 23:46 given the current Banner clock).  I will either be able to register and be happy, not be able to register and neither will anyone else and I will be happy or I will not be able to register and everybody else will and I’ll whine to my advisor by voicemail and beg her to talk to the instructors for any closed sections for me.

Only thing that feels like it might get messy is a course I was wanting for my computer science minor, but no big deal, I’ll sort it out later.

I know that sometimes when I am dealing with people I get frustrated too early with things like slow processes or anything that takes time and requires human attention, but now I feel that I have a right to be, at least when it comes to Fayetteville State University.

Registration opens in about 10 hours, and there are a few problems.

1. Advising PINs – These are great in place of a registration hold for advising, but they are best when the advisors can actually give them to students. Last time I checked, my advisor did not have access to my advising PIN and I was supposed to wait until Thursday to get it. Thursday came and went, no PIN has shown up yet. I e-mailed, and no response.
2. Online Restrictions – it was announced by email on March 29th that we would be required to have declared an Online major before registration opens to be able to register for courses that are needed. I filed my change of major on that same day and my department processed it about 48 hours later. My form is somewhere in the magical land of ITTS waiting for the registrar to enter it. It takes 5 – 10 days for the whole change of major process under normal load at the registrar’s office, but now there is this requirement that comes 16 days before registration and everyone is scrambling to get the requirements met. My change has not shown up in the system yet, therefore, I must assume that I will not be able to get the courses I need, even if I did have my PIN (although, there is no sign on the courses that they are so restricted).
3. Semesters are not open – Usually a few days before registration opens the registrar will “turn on” the semester, making it go from “view only” to clear, which allows students to view information about their registration eligibility and other helpful little notes. I can not see my status on anything at the moment, nor can I declare my intention for the semester with the registrar (a semester requirement for administrative purposes).
4. Registrar does not answer – I have sent several e-mails to the registrar’s office and they have all gone unanswered. If there were to be a problem (such as my major not being entered), I do not believe I could get a response from anyone, and the registrar announces that if I call, I will be on hold for a long time before I reach anyone. Maybe I should set aside an afternoon to call and get all of my issues resolved at once.
5. Date confusion – Everywhere I look for the registration open date, I see April 13 at 12am, except for seeing it in once place that I can not remember that stated it is April 14th at 12am. If the 14th is correct, I could calm down, but somehow I doubt that one source was correct.

I am not sure what is going on with these people, but I find it hard to believe that if registration PINs were not issued until Thursday that very many people were able to get them. I also am having a hard time trusting my advisor presently, she is not answering my questions, only delaying giving me a PIN. Not sure what to think there.

I will try accessing Banner at midnight with my CRNs just in case some magical thing will allow me to register. I have been trying so hard to get everything done on time so that I would be able to register as soon as registration opens, maybe another semester? and maybe the instructors will be nice and permit me into closed sections?

I am not entirely sure I understand the way that college and university IT departments justify their downtime. From the 8th of April until the 15th of April Gaston College is taking down their perfectly functioning Blackboard server to replace it with a “new” and “improved” version of Blackboard. We are a few weeks from the conclusion of the Spring semester and the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th are normal class days. Why are we being interrupted for an unnecessary outage during scheduled class time?

In 48 hours, on Sunday evening at around 11PM, I have a major psychology assignment due. I sometimes procrastinate on things, but not usually like this. I am afraid to do the assignment that I am procrastinating on. Remember that term paper I mentioned a few months ago? Its due. I do not like the idea of writing a paper about myself. I forced myself a few weeks ago to write the abstract for the paper as well as do a basic outline of the paper topics. I looked over it early in an attempt to get ready for the paper, but could barely stand to look back over the outline. I was a very open person the day I wrote the outline, and today I am a little more wrapped in my shell. I hate writing about myself, especially analytically. I recognize that I need to get over all of this if I am actually going to make it into graduate school. I have a difficult year ahead as I prepare for all of this. I will have to become very comfortable with myself if I am going to be successful with psychology. As a matter of fact, if I manage to overcome my issues with myself for the purpose of psychology, then it will have a profound impact on my abilities as an artist, writer and anything else I choose to do. If I can manage to survive this one little assignment, my existence will make a lot more sense to me, but first I have to survive that first paragraph, the biography.

I am becoming frustrated with distance education, although I do not entirely know why. On the factual side of things, my credentials from other schools have not been evaluated at FSU yet (they were sent in February), the change of major process is going way too slowly for my liking (since it isn’t a real change of major, just a change of campus), and I can’t  seem to get my advisor to issue my alternate registration PIN for summer and fall registration. It bothers me that I can not physically go to these people that are troubling me, and that they are not responding to my emails. I don’t get why I am so bothered, since it is not like when I go to a physical campus I interact with anyone by any way other than email.

I think I might be a little upset by the fact the email systems are in transition and I have no way of knowing which address I should be using for official university communication.

I have been planning for my upcoming registration date for both Summer and Fall for a while now (just ask my advisor). My summer schedule has been previously discussed, and everything appears to be in order for that. There are some problems with my fall schedule though.

Introduction to Clinical and Counselling Psychology [PSYC342]
Introduction to Clinical and Counseling Psychology: A survey of the history, theories, and applications of clinical and counseling psychology, with an emphasis on analyses of the various approaches to counseling and therapy. — 3 hours

Research Methodology [PSYC352]
Research Methodology: A lecture and laboratory course covering the design, analysis, implementation, and interpretation of experimental research in areas of general psychology, such as learning, memory, and perception, and in social psychology. — 4 hours

Behavior Modification [PSYC380]
Behavior Modification: A study of applications of learning theories and laboratory findings to behavior problems in educational, clinical, and social settings, with emphasis on empirical research demonstrating the effectiveness of behavior modification and cognitive/behavioral techniques — 3 hours

Developmental Psychology [PSYC331]
Developmental Psychology: An introduction to developmental psychology, focusing on the period from conception through adolescence, with emphasis on developmental principles and theories in the areas of cognitive, emotional, social, personality, and physical development. — 3 hours

That is the schedule as I had originally planned it. The department on the other hand, has other ideas about the course selection. At present only 4 courses show up in Banner for Fall in the Online Psychology program (remember, registration is in 14 days). So far the only course from my list that is in Banner in PSYC 352, which is a core major course, so it will likely be not very exciting.

I had considered working on some courses for a potential minor in Sociology (common pairing at FSU), but the only thing I could take is SOCI 210, but that isn’t even available online. I really was looking forward to “Sociology of Deviant Behavior”, but I don’t meet the pre-requisite, so no fun course in that area for me.

I have just completed another change of major, at Fayetteville. This time I can safely say that it is not my fault. I received an email a while ago, stating that I should change my major from “Psychology” to “Psychology-Online” or else, I would not be allowed to register for any online courses for Summer or Fall. To make things more fun, the page created by the Distance Education coordinator reminds students that even after being accepted to the university, it is not guaranteed that you will be accepted to a degree program, she goes on to state that there are limited spaces for students in online courses. I am a little worried, since I don’t exactly have the option of taking courses in person on the campus. There is also a little part of me that knows that the process should go ok, since all it takes is the psychology department secretary to OK my request and all is well with the world. I might just have to write a little note to Ms. Lopez later to make sure (why not, she’s been emailing me a lot lately).

I do not like the fact that I was sent this email just 2 weeks before registration opens. It takes a minimum of 5 days for these things to be processed, and I am already convinced that the registrar hates me, so there is another worry to add to this.

I have always been very excited about the distance education concept and very confident in the possibilities there, but sometimes there is no replacement for having the ability to go see your registrar and be within slapping distance of them.

The longer I attend college, the fewer class options I have (but I suspect that will change with graduate school). I do have some choices to make about courses though.

First, I have my Psychology courses, I am pretty much decided on what I’m taking, because there is a fairly firm set of courses in the beginning of the program. I could do others, but I might hurt my ability to be full time in future semesters.

PSYC 233 – Statistics for Psychology: Basic statistical theory and techniques appropriate to psychology and related fields; introduction to statistical inference and the testing of hypotheses. This course includes a lab which incorporates the use of computer packages for statistical analyses.

PSYC 320 – Theories of Learning: A review of major theories of human and animal learning and motivation, with emphasis on individual and environmental factors affecting learning and performance in various contexts, including experimental and educational settings.

PSYC 233 is required as a pre-requisite for a lot of higher level requirements, as well as a requirement for the major.  PSYC 320 is a requirement for the major, as well as is a pre-requisite for many of the fun courses I may want to use as electives.

I have also taken a look at Gaston College’s Summer schedule and while there are no courses that apply to my major that I am interested in taking (since the only course related to AFA is Painting), there are some that apply to my general interest and to my hobbies.

NOS 120 – Linux/UNIX Single User: This course develops the necessary skills for students to develop both GUI and command line skills for using and customizing a Linux workstation. Topics include Linux file system and access permissions, GNOME Interface, VI editor, X Window System expression pattern matching, I/O redirection, network and printing utilities. Upon completion, students should be able to customize and use Linux systems for command line requirements and desktop productivity roles.

WEB 210 – Web Design: This course introduces intermediate to advanced web design techniques. Topics include customer expectations, advanced markup language, multimedia technologies, usability and accessibility practices, and techniques for the evaluation of web design. Upon completion, students should be able to employ advanced design techniques to create high impact and highly functional web sites.

Either of those courses would be purely for my enjoyment Web design would be beneficial to much that I do, but I am not sure I would want to sit through another course on the topic and have things so formally instructed. Unix on the other hand would be a most useful course for me personally. I enjoyed my experience with Ubuntu and would really like to get a deeper understanding of Unix and Linux.

My options are less varied than they usually are, but then again, CPCC will not be reporting in for Summer until March 30th. I originally planned a 6 credit hour summer, but I think I will need a break from psychology at some point, although, I would much prefer a creative course to something technical, but I will take anything fun that I can find at this point.