Already missed a deadline?

No not a homework deadline, but a registrar form deadline… I didn’t even realize it was due at the end of my junior year. Let’s tack that on to the growing list of stuff I have to finish before I can graduate—just one email reminder would have been nice. At the beginning of each school year, every student is plagued with getting back into the grove of being back at school, as well as jumping on growing piles of school work and catching up with friends that we haven’t seen in three months.

But as a senior, the start of our last year at Linfield is bitter-sweet. With the excitement and fear of having the end in sight, we have a lot to deal with. We have deadlines, paperwork, thesis, capstones and etcetera to finish in just a short nine months. While it is not necessarily their job to remind us about these types of deadlines, who else is going to? We have not been seniors before, and new advisors might not be familiar with everything that needs to be done.

The paper work necessary to graduate may be required, but it is not a recurring task that students have to perform each year, such as clearing our accounts, getting our semester stickers or registering for classes. So us seniors are not sure exactly what is required of us. This also does not fall onto the staff of the registrars office. This should be included in academic advising’s responsibilities. Academic advising is the office in charge of dealing with our majors, other than our advisors.

Just like the incoming students, there should be a check off list of things that need to be done before our huge occasion sneaks up on us. Or even just a tab on the current students page on the Linfield website would be helpful. Even with the forms online, there’s no guidelines or reminders of what else seniors need to do.

Instead of having to go look for three or four different things, in different places, it should be more simple! One master form or website that lists all of the requirements would definitely make life easier for seniors and end all of the confusion. What we don’t need is scrutiny when we turn these forms in late, unsure of what we were supposed to do, and then told that we can’t turn it in until we fill something else out.

I think this confusion could all come to an end with three simple things: communication, updated technology options and patience. Now we don’t need to be babied, but a little help would be appreciated. Just like the big adjustment of coming into college, going out into the real world is scary and some times intimidating, we need the support of our small college.

Kaylyn Peterson / Managing editor

Kaylyn Peterson can be reached at [email protected].