Registration
nowadays comparing to 1950s-1960s
References
I still remember
the first day when I came to Penn state on campus. It was January 13th
2013. Everything was new for me. I considered myself as a lucky student “I thought
I have come to a place that life in that place at the summit of evolution” talking with
myself. I had measured everything to registration process such as teaching methods
and dealing with a problem, and etc. How was the process amazing and easy!. I
finished everything online. First, I went to HUB building to register and taking
Penn State student ID which took less than thirty minutes. Then I went to the
Laboratory in the first floor of Boucke building to activate the ID just by
swiping the card to a swiper. The whole process took less than two hours. There
was not any routing process such as copy papers or hand filling application or..etc.Since
I completed the registration process, I had being curious to know about how was that
process going in the past. This is because these stuffs that exist nowadays such as computer, internet, and etc, were not available.
Fortunately, with my classmate in
the IECP last two weeks I had a chance to visit Foxdale village, which is a retirement community. There I met a senior woman who is name Emily Filling. She is
from California and was Penn State student at 1950s. When she asked me how do you feel with on campus life? I responded her "it is wonderful and life is
fast there". When we had a conversation about on campus life, I took advantage of
the time to figure out the question in my mind.
- “Mrs. Emily, do you remember
your first day on campus or registration day?" I asked.
- “Oh yeah, it was nice but was
not like today”.
- How was it different from nowadays?
I asked.
- (chuckle) “I went to
on campus three days in a row just for registration. The students were classified for registration by their last name letters and study years. The first day I thought I am a lucky because my
last name starts with F, so I will be in the beginning of the line. Then the staff
told your last name letter is not enough, but we look at year student as well.
Tomorrow will be for freshman and sophomore student” she explained.
Her description for registration
process at that time, led me to make some researches about it. I found some
articles and pictures about registration in that time which are interesting and different from now. According to the article Registration Begins
Today for 11,500, (Daily Collegian, Sept 16, 1953) the registration was
starting in Recreation Hall (Rec Hall) instead of HUB building. Unlike today,
in 1950s-1960s there was not computer. Instead of that, a lot of Penn State staffs had sat on a long line of tables for helping student to complete their registration. Also, in
that time there were some routines during registration process. For example,
students had to fill out an application form before entering Rec Hall. Another
example for routines at that time, after registration, they had to go to
Willard building for a copy of Bursar's receipt (La Vie 1962, page 102).
In short, the registration process has
developed comparing to the middle of the last century. Nowadays registration is completed online while students in the past had suffered from hand filling forms and waiting some days just for registration.
-Historical Digital Collegian Archive (1887-2010)
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