First-Years Endure Long Lines at Registration

A line of more than 280 students spanned the Yard Monday morning as first-years and transfers waited to register in Sever Hall.

Despite the alphabetical breakdown of first-years, the line of those waiting stretched across the old Yard and past the front of Weld Hall by 10 a.m.

This year's registration was relocated to Sever because of the renovation of Memorial Hall.

Some first-years said yesterday they had been waiting for as long as 45 minutes and that they felt the registration process could have been better organized.

"I think we paid too much money for this," said Anders P. Hedberg '98.

"Just past nine in the morning it's not exactly what you want to wake up to," his roommate Jesse E. Hahnel '98 added.

Even those familiar with the bureaucratic entanglements associated with college life said they were surprised by the long wait for registration.

Raphael L. DeBalman '97, a transfer student from Princeton University said he had not experienced similar delays there.

"They gave us certain set times when we could just go in," he explained.

Adele F. Grignon '97, DeBalman's companion in the line and a transfer from Tufts University, said she too was surprised by the long line.

"We had all day registration [at Tufts] so you could just show up," she said.

A first-year who said he had been waiting for about a half hour said he blamed Harvard's administration for the delay.

"It would have been a lot better if they had done [registration] in alphabetical order so you could slip into your established place when the turn came," said David S. Grewal '98.

Despite hour-long delays, most students said tried to make the most of the wait as they stood on line for their turn to sign their registration forms and pick up their study cards.

"It's not bad if we are talking," said Jen J. Heath '98, a Canaday F resident. "The line's better than the line for the ethernet card. That was awful."

But one first-year, who said it had taken him about 40 minutes to make it to the middle of the long line, said he felt like throwing in the towel.

"I'm saying we should just go back and forget about Harvard," said Erik E. Amblad '98. "Forty minutes--it's just not worth it."

Georgene B. Herschbach, registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said yesterday her office met in a special session Monday morning to address the problems with the relocation of registration to Memorial Hall.

"We figured out ways of increasing the ways students are moving through the building," Herschbach said.

"This morning we actually met for about one hour and a half to think anew about upperclass registration," she said.

Herschbach said she will employ more people and place them strategically in order to avoid bottlenecks.

"In the second half of the registration period we actually moved about half of the freshman class," Herschbach said. "It's inevitable that we would have some startup problems in a transition like this."