When the phone rang at 2 a.m. yesterday, fourth-year College student Becky Kinlein didn't mind the early wake-up call Kinlein's friend had called to let her know that ISIS was up and running, and she ought to give registration a shot.
"I was supposed to register for classes at 11:00 a.m. on Monday morning, but I couldn't get onto ISIS," Kinlein said. "Then my friend called at 2 a.m. and said ISIS was up, and I registered for all my classes."
Not everyone was so fortunate.
Megan McDade, a second-year in the College, was supposed to receive priority registration through the Echols Scholars program.
McDade woke up at 9:20 a.m. for her 9:30 a.m. registration time and then spent the next hour and a half trying to get online.
"I went to one class, skipped lunch and another class, and still couldn't get onto ISIS," McDade said. "I was in the computer lab in the English department, and there were about 10 other people in there trying to register and cussing."
Such frustration rippled through the entire Echols Scholars program, causing Echols Dean Jim Sofka to receive 267 e-mails in five hours.
"We have almost 900 Echols Scholars in the College, and many of them did encounter a number of problems," Sofka said. "I tried to tell them that obviously it's unfortunate, but it's not life or death, and it will all get worked out."
At 10:53 a.m., in the second of many e-mails Sofka would send out that day, he acknowledged that "ISIS is being recalcitrant and cranky today," and that he sympathized with the students' plight.
By 12:15 p.m., Sofka's e-mail updates told students to "curse ISIS all [they] want and denounce the machine age generally," but he refrained from repeating the adage that "patience is a virtue" because he "didn't want [his] tires slashed."
An hour later, Sofka's next e-mail to students offered very little good news, and asserted that "life was much simpler in the 1750s."
This e-mail, titled "Last ISIS Email," was followed by two more e-mails, one of which bore the title "Cooler heads always prevail."
In this e-mail, Sofka asked his students not to "bombard the ISIS or ITC e-mail accounts with nasty notes and profanity," because University Registrar Carol Stanley was hard at work trying to fix the problem.
Sofka was just trying his best to keep everyone calm. "By sending them these e-mails, I just attempted to tell them I looking out for them," he said. "I was most concerned about the first years, since they just have no idea what's going on."
He even heard stories of people skipping classes to register, including one scholar who spent six hours straight on her computer.
Sofka's advice to her?
Take a walk and chill out.
Third-year College student Daniel Din noted that people do, in fact, rearrange their whole day around their ISIS registration time.
"I need at least 24 hours notice," Din said. "If they don't let me know ahead of time, I'll definitely miss my time because I'll be in a class or something."
But Sofka has more advice for those who continue to worry.
"These things happen," he said. "It's technology, and it's going to break."
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