Online Registration

 This fall, the administration—compelled by the need to reduce operative costs-- pulled the plug on the old tradition of paper mail and implemented paperless mail via internet.

The college began the campaign for students to sign up with their own email accounts from Pirates Link on the Pirate Net back in March this year.  According to Susie Agostini, Dean of Matriculation, Admissions, and Records, there are still thousands of students who still have not set up their college email account. In order to force students to activate these accounts, the college decreed that registration dates for spring semester would only be sent out in via school email.
     Personal email addresses such as Yahoo, Gmail, Google and many other commercial email accounts are not permissible or encouraged by administration or staff.  Faculty and staff have noted a number of problems with the use of personal email: inappropriate email address language, students sending email that do not state their name and most importantly addresses that fall out of usage.
     "We have to keep up with the changes," said Agostini. "We find it that students will sign up and put their personal email on file, then never update their email address with us."
     Students were highly encouraged to set up an account through the campus website in order to receive their registration date that came out on October 15, 2009. The administration made it easy for students to do so by creating a quick link on mjc.edu. Students that do not set up their student email account on the Pirates Net will receive their registration date by November 3, 2009.
     "We are trying to entice every [student] to know about the registration," said Agostini. "It is like giving them prize. Students who have or set up an email account will [have received] their registration dates by October 15. Otherwise the [students] have to wait until the registration dates are posted on Pirates Net."
     Email and registration are not the only functions to be going to an online only format. As a result to the budget cuts, all paper publications that were mandatory to be mailed such as registration dates, financial aid information, enrollment registration, health services, class schedules and course catalogs will no longer be published on paper. According to Linda Hoile, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, this will save MJC approximately $50,000 or more a year.
     "It is just getting too expensive to continue using paper mail," said Agostini. "It costs us (MJC) 42 cents a postage plus the cost of paper. You multiply that by 20,000 plus students that are registered on campus."
     According to recent fliers going around, the paperless mail is also "good for the environment" as well as "student-friendly" because it saves money and staff time while providing students with the most accurate, up-to-date information on spring classes.
     In addition to the paperless registration, MJC is also going phoneless, getting rid of the hotline for students to add, remove and make changes to their schedule. The cost to renew the agreement with the phone company became too costly.
     "We are trying to cut costs as much as we can," said Agostini. "Pushing email and internet usage is a great way to save the campus money."