Have you heard the message: “Thank you for calling. SMART phone registration is not currently available”? The friendly voice that guided us to a successful registration semester after semester is gone. The same voice told us it was going to happen, and as of September 4, 2004, it did.

Home phones, pay phones and cell phones have all been rendered useless in the process of registration, unless of course your phone connects to the Internet. WebSMART is now our only option for registering when the admissions office is closed, and our only option off campus.

The reason for SMART’s termination, just like every other useful thing, like, say, classes and teachers, is, of course, budget cuts. Skyline just does not have the money. Things must be tough around campus since the student body is paying more and receiving less. Pretty soon we will be saying goodbye to in-person registration, and we will be taking classes over the Internet, and paying $100 per unit.

Well, maybe it won’t be that bad, but this is absurd, having to register on the Internet that frequently likes to call in sick and play hooky. You know what I mean, you’ve surely been acquainted with the “page cannot be displayed” screen, and this familiar message; “Database Log In Failed. TNS is unable to connect to destination…” blah, blah, blah.

We here at the Skyline View do not like those pages. In fact, we think the demise of SMART is detrimental to the registration proccess here at Skyline.

Let’s say you do get a computer and the Internet is working. You log onto the Skyline website, click on the registration button; enter in your ID and password, and that darned “Database Log In Failed” page comes up. What do you do then? Check your ID and password-still the same response? Try again-same thing? Now what? You get on your bicycle and ride over to the admissions office-and what is this? The doors are locked! No one is in the office and you are all alone on campus, the sun is setting, darkness is engulfing you; you are miles away from home, and it is all up hill. Tears well up in your eyes and you look into the heavens and let out a scream from the depths of your soul, cursing September 4, 2004, the day that SMART died.

It’s not so much that this no-phone business will be an inconvenience to students who own computers and have access to the Internet, but our concern is for those who just cannot get to a computer when they need to. It seems that those unfortunate students will have to hop on their bicycles and hightail it over to campus. Let us just hope that the admissions office is open when they get there.