Not even Bruce Springsteen could have attracted more college-aged students than the mad rush for add/drop and schedule completion earlier this week. NIU administrators should be darn proud of what they have done to increase enrollment at this fine institution and draw such record-breaking crowds. And students should be plenty mad at them for it.

Each semester, every student must prepare themselves for the ugliest and most grueling stage of NIU life—actually becoming enrolled in the classes he or she wishes to take. Now this doesn’t sound like it should be a very difficult task for somebody who pays nearly $800 in tuition, but for some ungodly set of reasons, getting into classes each semester is more painful than a swift kick in the groin.

A freshman who sends in his schedule well before deadline must face the fact that it will be sent back adorned with sweet messages, compliments of the university. Much to his surprise, the words “CLOSED CLASS” will replace at least two, and maybe even three or four classes he had applied for.

I can remember as a freshman feeling confused, frustrated and angry at the situation. But I quickly learned that my anger could not match that of sophomores, juniors and most often seniors who needed the hours or the classes to get the heck out of here on time. It began to make sense to me that those with more hours should receive priority.

But three years and six semesters later, I am no longer so understanding. And neither are the hundreds of senior communications, business and countless other majors who must wait in line for hours in the ballroom to beg and plead for special permits to fulfill their graduation requirements within a five year period, if they’re lucky.

It would not be so maddening as a second semester graduating senior to be turned away from classes that are required in a major—if there were some logical reasons that the courses are closed. But logic is not a word in the vocabularies of the quality administrators here at NIU.

In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alone, there were about 10,000 more seats requested in classes that could not be delivered to the well-deserving students who applied for them. Furthermore, there are 694 students in the communications department and only room for about 450. That leaves 244 faithful tuition and fee-paying students out in the cold. Not to mention countless others who left the ballroom empty handed.

It seems the university made some arrangements for some of these students. One LA&S class was narrowed down to only two sections when a couple of faculty members took their sabbaticals this semester. The solution reached was to offer the course once a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the College of DuPage, nearly one hour away. So now 50 students have to arrange for transportation and give up weekend trips home so they can take a class the university overloaded in the first place.

“But I have a job on Saturdays and I don’t have a car. I can’t afford to quit the job because I was turned down by financial aid this year,” one student begged. Here was the department chair’s sympathetic reply, “Go to DuPage or don’t graduate.” Beautiful, huh?

Another 80 some students missed the entire first day of classes Monday to wait outside this same department chair’s office for permits for another required class. Each student was given a number and stood outside the office door until it was their turn to get rejected. At the end of the day, 25 students hadn’t even gotten in the door.

Is this some kind of a game the university is playing? Do they get their kicks out of accepting more students than they can handle and then giggle in their Lowden Hall offices while students are forced to stay on an extra year in the confines of NIU academia?

I have a little advice for those Lowden Hall intellectuals trying to make our university size up to that of U of I or other whopper institutions in the state: You are getting too big for your own britches. Stop accepting all these “top quality” students while you are ahead, or you will slowly lose the ones you already have.