Every week the editorial board reflects on a current issue in Our View. The position taken does not reflect the opinions of everyone on the Hilltop Views staff.

St. Edward’s University is making a major transition from EdWeb to the new web portal MyHilltop. Starting this semester, students will use MyHilltop to register for housing and classes, accept financial aid and access other important information. While this change is good for the future of St. Edward’s, it is also very disruptive.

Registration

The biggest change that students will notice with MyHilltop will be the new interface and rules for class registration. Gone are the days where students’ credit hours are the basis of when they are able to register. With the introduction of MyHilltop, students will register with their class on a single day starting at 8 a.m. because it is on a separate system with large enough bandwidth to accommodate everyone registering at once.

This change does not benefit students; instead it punishes them for their hard earned credit hours that they have accumulated over several years. Students should not have to fight at the break of dawn to get the classes they need or want.

Considering we have yet to register for classes with the new system and schedule, it cannot yet be determined if this change will be a success.

However, after registration is done and if students’ feedback is negative, then the university should revert back to the old schedule.

Campus Internet

The wireless Internet on campus is notoriously unreliable. Most students have experienced those frustrating days of being unable to connect to the server.

While MyHilltop may have a server that can handle the increased load of an entire class registering at once, it is obvious that the school’s Internet does not. With massive amounts of students all racing to register early in the morning, the campus Internet is guaranteed to come to a standstill.

It’s time that Wi-Fi on campus can be as stable as MyHilltop proclaims to be.

Change

The biggest positive thing about MyHilltop is that it brings change.

EdWeb had been in use for more than 24 years, so change was overdue. We are accustomed to change because of the ever changing design of Facebook, Twitter and our smart phones. Even President Barack Obama ran on “change” during his first bid for the White House. It’s ingrained into our culture.

Change is just natural for our generation, and we will, over time, become used to MyHilltop.