by Abby Stern
Ever since the start of the registration period, I have heard incessant complaints about Primary Academic Web-based Services (PAWS) around campus.
Many people on this campus are resistant to the transition from TESS to PAWS, and they claim it has inconvenienced them and is not worth the trouble.
While I understand that PAWS is not flawless, I believe that these complaints are ridiculous and unfounded.
Those of us who are familiar with TESS remember the problems it posed, particularly during registration time. Let’s paint a picture of what registration used to be like with TESS.
In preparation for registration, you would search for your classes through a convoluted search feature. Every so often you would press the back button in your internet browser only to end up cursing when you were directed to an error page.
On the day of your registration, you would sign into TESS and go to the registration page — that is, once you had been logged off once or twice.
When you reached the registration page, you would anxiously keep clicking “submit” until TESS finally confirmed that you were enrolled in your classes.
Throughout this entire process, you hoped that you weren’t suddenly logged off due to over-activity on the system. Only when your registration was confirmed could you breathe a sigh of relief, having survived yet another registration period.
Unlike TESS, PAWS allows you to keep track of classes that appeal to you, by saving potential classes in a shopping cart.
This way, you don’t have to bother with call numbers, and you can register directly from there.
Also, PAWS is not bogged down by a lot of traffic on the system, and the back button takes you to the previous page without logging you off.
While PAWS has its flaws, I believe that this system is a significant improvement from our previous situation.
We have online program planners, we can log in at any time of night, and we can see our billing information in full detail.
Many people on campus don’t seem to realize that PAWS was not just created and then abandoned — it’s still a work in progress.
The kinks are still being worked out, and many errors have already been fixed.
In addition, the staff that works in Records and Registration has been extremely helpful in correcting mistakes during registration. They’ve been instantly enrolling students in classes if the system is giving them trouble.
People need to realize that change isn’t always a bad thing. Give it a chance.
