With all the classes and services getting the ax these days, it angers me to see something very feeble-minded overlooked. NIU is the only state school I know of that requires its students to complete 124 hours of study, while others, such as SIU and the state’s premier school, U of I, ask the standard 120.

I think, to most people, matching NIU’s necessary hours for graduation with everyone else’s to save money makes much more sense than cutting classes vital to the progress of many students. I’m sure those not graduating this semester due to NIU’s brilliant planning felt especially strong about this.

One more awesome thing about this place, is the registration system. Why is it that WIU, a school half this size, can have a registration system that allows the students to know their schedule immediately and permits them to find an alternative class instantly if one happens to be closed?

Meanwhile, back here, we wonder how many **CLOSED CLASS** notices we’ll get on our schedule when it finally comes by mail. Then, as an added bonus, we get to think about the fun of schedule completion and the ecstasy of Add/Drop.

Wake up NIU! Did you know it was 1991?

Patrick E. O’Malley

Senior

Sociology