1960’s Technology – College Course Scheduling

We’ve gotten so used to computers these days and using them for so many different tasks, that it may be difficult for many to realize what we had to do before they became so ubiquitous.   I’d like to relate one such task – that of choosing classes while I was at Michigan State in the late 1960’s.

MSU ran on a quarter system in those days, so one had to choose classes three times a year (assuming that you didn’t take summer classes as well).  It was a very large university with over 40,000 students, so the system for selecting classes was pretty complicated.

Midway in the prior quarter (and in the spring for the fall quarter), they published a list of all the courses that were going to be offered the next quarter – and not just the classes, but the complete list of sections.  For some upper-level advanced classes, there may have been only one section, but lower-level classes, and especially those that were some of the university-wide, there were literally hundreds of sections.  Each section noted the days of the week and times that the section met, and often the name of the instructor.  Often times these might simply be listed as “staff” since the department had not yet made the assignment of instructor to section, or because it was going to be taught by a grad assistant.

Initially, you would go through and pick the sections that you liked – either because you liked the time of day, the location of the building it was in, or perhaps the reputation of the professor.  8AM classes were usually not liked by many, nor late afternoon ones.  You also had to leave some time for lunch in the middle of the day.  You then submitted your choices and waited until “registration day”.  Of course, the courses you chose should have been on the basis of your periodic meetings with your advisor so you were confident that you were making sufficient progress toward your degree.  (In my case, I was charting a path to graduate in three years instead of four, so I just told my advisor what I was going to be doing, instead of walking in somewhat clueless as I know some others did.)

Registration for classes was on a priority basis.  First group, graduating seniors; then seniors and honors college students; then juniors; sophomores; and freshmen.  Within each group it was ordered alphabetically, except that each quarter they changed where in the alphabet they started.  One quarter might start with “L” and end with “K”, next quarter might start with “S” and end with “R”, etc.  The same order was used for initial assignment of classes and for the registration day.

On registration day everyone showed up outside the Men’s Intramural Building – the one with the most large open spaces inside (gym, basketball court, wrestling arena, etc.).  You and those in the same group and alphabetical subset had a starting time – you could go in any time after that, but not before it.  First came a number of lines based on your name where you picked up a packet of IBM punch cards.  The top card had your student number and name on it, behind it were the course cards for the courses you had gotten, ones for scholarships, ones for payment, etc.  You checked the course cards against what you had asked for.  Those who got everything they wanted could then head to the rooms where your results would be checked, your eligibility for that scholarship confirmed, your tuition calculated, and then you would turn in most of the cards and write a check to the university.

Of course, many people did not get exactly what they wanted – because everyone else wanted the same perfectly scheduled sections.  So you took your cards, your copy of the course/section catalog, and headed to the dreaded “drop/add” arena.  All around the arena were tables arranged according to department, and each table was staffed by someone who was representing the department that day – often a grad assistant (I had the privilege of manning the drop/add table for the Computer Science department a couple of times).

For each section within each course, there was a deck of drop/add cards.  There were add cards in the front if there were still seats available, then alternating drop/add cards from that point on.  For example, if there were 30 seats in the room and 27 had been assigned to a student, then there were three add cards, then a drop card, then an add card, etc.  The rule was that if the top card in the pile was an add card, the student could join that section.  If not, then only if another student dropped that section and was given a drop card (didn’t have to be the top card, it could be card 4 in the above example), then that would free up one more available add card.  You couldn’t take the card yourself, the person manning the table would have to examine the course cards you already had in your packet and he/she would give you one if you were entitled to it, i.e. you could only get a drop card if you were already assigned to that section, you could not get an add card if you already had a card for another section, etc.

Some people had to spend a long time in the drop/add arena as you might need to totally arrange your schedule in order to fit in all the classes you wanted.  For example, if the only open section for one class was at 10:20 and you already had another class at that time, you would have to drop the one in order to add the other, but that might mean that other things in your schedule could be impacted.  So all the while you’re checking the course/section catalog, trying to fit in the classes you need/want, and not getting a totally unworkable result.

I remember on student in one of my classes who forgot to pay attention to which building the sections were in.  He lived on the extreme western end of campus.  But he had an 8:00 class at the far eastern end, followed by a 9:10 class back on the western end, then a 10:20 class about ¾ of the way across, then time for lunch back in his dorm.  He only made that mistake once!  (For reference, the campus was about 2 miles from one end to the other, the classes were 50 minutes long with 20 minutes in between.  But you can’t walk 2 miles in just 20 minutes, so you either need a bicycle or a bus pass.)

But such was the technology of the day and what you needed to do when you had a university of 40,000+ students.  Now we have access to online scheduling systems and the crazy type of logistics that were needed back in the 1960’s is no longer needed.