The Helpline Where Your Call Gets A Decline
Raise your hand if you’ve felt personally victimized by the Vanier College registration hotline.
At least, that’s how I certainly felt.
Registration is probably the most stressful time leading up to the semester. There’s that dread with starting over again after having been away for so long. The stress in hoping you get the class with the teacher who has a 4.8 rating or from wanting to be in a class with your best friend. The fact that you might have to deal with an intense course load doesn’t help either, and you might even be desperate to get that Friday off.
All in all, you want registration to go as smoothly as possible right? All of us do of course. Sometimes though, little issues come up that weren’t foreseen. Issues that can be resolved in 5 minutes and possibly, with proper information, even prior to registration.
Yet instead of moving forward with your registration quickly, you’re left calling the helpline over and over again hearing “You have reached the Vanier College registration helpline for the 2019 winter semester”, followed by the sound of a hung up phone. Frustration is not the best way to begin a new semester. Also, why isn’t there a hold and wait list option?
I was calling for myself using 2 different phones and even had a friend call in for me. In an hour, we called a total of 107 times. Just before I was about to call it a quits and head back to bed, I heard the foreign voice of a real life woman ready to help me. I was so desperate I even said out loud “are you actually real?” Luckily all my issues were resolved. But could you imagine that I experienced this in priority registration?
As Vanier is a school built around a sense of community, it might be helpful for there not only to be a holding list implemented, but also perhaps a separate line where former students can address the simpler questions. Workshops prior to registration can also be helpful to free up space for more serious academic situations in regards to our schedules.
Registration is a crucial time, my countrymen, and can make a significant difference with students’ attitudes going into a new semester.
Written by: Amanda Buttice
