Thursday, January 10, 2008

Student Check-In

Dartmouth has a bizarre "check-in" system for students. Basically, at the beginning of each term, students need to go to "Bannerstudent," a centralized website for information like course schedules and the like, and officially register that they are here for the term. But for the check-in, there are two deadlines. In this term for example, the actual deadline for checking in is January 15, but if you don't do it before January 9, students are fined $50.

What's really annoying, however, is that the Upperclass Deans only send out an email reminding students about checking in after the deadline. Couldn't they send out the email before students get fined $50? Of course not, that wouldn't be beneficial for the college fine money-making operation. Each term, the college must surely be making tens of thousands of dollars off of this, clearly exploiting students in the process. There is absolutely no reasonable explanation for why students should be fined in this case. And it's reflective of a much larger problem. The college uses fines far too frequently. For example, last winter (during all the ice and snow, and salt) I was almost fined for leaving my shoes by the door of my dorm room - and they weren't even in front of the door, they were underneath a closet-like area for jackets. The same extends to parking fines. While the typical fine in the town of Hanover is $20, fines on Dartmouth property are typically $50 or $100, and Safety & Security tickets student cars aggressively.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you saying you don't have to stand in line outside Alumni Hall and check in personally? Do you no longer have the pleasure of seeing Phi Tau members (the table was always operated by Phi Tau, for some reason) scrape last term's sticker off your ID and put on the sticker showing you'd registered for this term?

Anonymous said...

For once I agree with you, David, that Dartmouth is fine-happy. I wonder where all that money goes.

Anonymous said...

Dartmouth is more than fine-happy. It is petty control-happy. How can a small college be such a big bureaucrat? Are these the same tendencies that motivate alumni relations? Maybe it is the Hanover water supply (which the College also controls).

Nathan Empsall said...

Dave, most colleges have a check-in system. We've got it easy, as the first anon says, but you're right, more blitzes warning us about deadlines would be nice. I missed signing up for courses while off campus because no one warned me of a deadline once.