ISIS: It’s Time For An Upgrade
It’s was a Friday night, and unlike the majority of UA students who were out partying the night away with friends, I was sat on the couch with a glass of chocolate milk, a bag of popcorn and my laptop. It all seemed a little pathetic, but last weekend was spent battling with ISIS for a spot in a summer journalism class.
As the clock ticked away, 11 p.m. came around along with a red “X” next to my enrollment shopping cart. 11:30 p.m. came and went with another, and by 11:45 p.m., the green check mark was nowhere to be found. Error after error popped up, whether it was too many hours enrolled, a class schedule conflict or not enough prerequisites. I hurried to make it into the class before ISIS went to sleep, but as 11:59 p.m. rolled around, my screen turned an ugly shade of beige and the enrollment system hit the hay.
As I sat there in disbelief, I thought to myself, “It’s okay, I’ll get online tomorrow morning before work and get into the class.” But no, ISIS was destined to sleep in for another weekend, and with a noon alarm set, I would have to wait until Saturday night to try again.
ISIS is a hot topic among student complaints, with the main question being “why does ISIS shut down every night?” Blackboard access is available 24/7, along with UA email and the UA website, so why is the service most needed by students closed in the hours that many need to access it? Tell me if I’m wrong, but I’m going to guess that most students aren’t wanting to complete Blackboard homework at one in the morning. Yet, when a class comes up that we need to enroll in, any time of day is a good time of day to ensure that we make it before the other hundred students do so.
I feel as if I’m speaking for the student body when I say that ISIS needs to be a 24 hour service. There really isn’t a reason for it not to be, and it would benefit every student, especially at this time of year when we are rapidly attempting to get our fall schedules together.
With more students heading to the UA in the upcoming year, ISIS needs to be a service available any time of day because of the volume of people trying to access at one time. I don’t know if you have ever tried, but attempting to log on to ISIS in the daytime can sometimes end in typing your password in what seems like a hundred times before the system will allow you access.
The university is all for bringing more students in to call the Hogs, but with higher numbers brings a need for advanced access and assistance for students.
Without it, we are going to continuously be caught up in a dead-end cycle of attempted log-ins and sitting in the ISIS waiting room. The UA is advancing so quickly in big operations that it’s easy to forget that small services like ISIS need an upgrade, but they are sometimes the most important to students.
The Internet gives us opportunities to skip standing in line to complete enrollment – we’re just holding ourselves back still treating it like a real office where we stand in line and wait to speak with the receptionist.
With the influx of students coming to Fayetteville in the next few months, we can only hope, for our own sanity, that ISIS will become a 24 hour service so that we can move through our degree plans on time.
Emily Rhodes is a journalism major, and the opinion editor.
