Scrambling to Sign Up

March 26 marked the end of housing registration for students in Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Columbia Housing Services implemented new housing software, StarPortal, to govern this year’s process. The StarPortal system worked reasonably well for its first use and has the potential to streamline the room-selection process. However, because of the unanticipated time required to complete the procedure, some students were left scrambling to register by the deadline. In the weeks leading up to registration, Housing should have better informed students about the new registration process.

While the old registration software worked well, it was created and maintained by a former employee, and Housing decided to switch to commercial software that would be more accessible to other employees. The department began shopping for new software five years ago and settled on StarPortal last summer. On paper, the new system compares favorably with the old. In addition to retaining all of the previous system’s features, including proxies and online registration, StarPortal adds another layer of functionality. The program enables students to sign their housing contracts online, a feature that will save 17,000 pieces of paper annually. It is also has the capacity to handle all room selection online. This year, only suite selection will be done in person, and even that may become Web-based in the future.

Despite StarPortal’s advantages, however, the housing registration process was not without hiccups. The StarPortal system is more confusing than its predecessor was. The registration form was arcane—especially for first-years not familiar with housing procedures—and asked more questions than it needed to. Housing should have provided students with a tutorial clarifying potentially confusing aspects of the selection process, as well as changes from previous years. Equally problematic was Housing’s failure to inform students by e-mail when the registration period began on March 11. The only e-mail notification was a reminder to register sent a day before the final deadline, and mere hours before the deadline for groups to register for Suite Selection. Any student who found out about registration so late in the game would have been hard-pressed to form suites of appropriate sizes and complete the new registration process on such short notice.

Granted, this was the first time the new system was used, but students still faced unnecessary difficulties in registering for housing. The biggest problem was not software glitches but rather poor administrative communication. StarPortal is up to the complicated task of housing Columbia College and SEAS students, but even innovative technology is ineffective if it is not properly explained. The software’s benefits were lost on students who had to scramble to register at the eleventh hour. Going forward, Housing should be more explicit about upcoming deadlines and do all it can to keep room selection simple.

Tom Faure recused himself from this editorial.