Print version of GA ensures integrity

By Erin Doctor     8/20/09 7:00pm

Today, I am going to justify killing trees.The Rice University General Announcements that I received on the first day of Orientation Week three years ago still sits on my bookshelf, right between an unopened differential equations textbook and The Elements of Typographic Style. I don't consult it very often, but until the day I graduate from Rice that General Announcements book is not going anywhere.

My General Announcements is my Bible for Rice; it is the final word on whether I have fulfilled the requirements for graduation from this university. If I am ever in doubt as to what is required from my declared majors, I can open up the GA and reassure myself that, yes, I do only need to complete six hours of upper-level social sciences.

The class of 2013 will be the first without the GA sitting on their bookshelves. As part of the university's environmental initiatives, the Registrar's Office has opted for a completely paperless GA, instead making it only available in PDF format on their Web site.

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Upon first glance, this seems like a perfectly logical and admirable action. The Registrar's Office saves both money and trees by not printing and binding copies of the GA for every student, and most students from previous classes use the Registrar's Web site to check up on their academic requirements anyway. However, the "dead trees" edition of the GA serves a very specific purpose: It is your protection against the Registrar.

When you submit your final application for your degree from Rice, you get to choose to graduate with the requirements from either your matriculation year or your graduation year. Seeing as how you have no idea what the requirements will be four years into the future when you matriculate, most students graduate with the requirements from their matriculation year. Those requirements are set in stone - or rather in ink - in the GA.

The great problem with fully electronic media is that it can be changed. Someone in the Registrar's Office can decide that they actually meant to say that 60 hours of upper-level credit are required for graduation instead of 48, or that this course is required for your major instead of that one.

Even if you print the GA in your room the second after you matriculate, it is still your word against theirs - what evidence is there that you didn't change the GA to suit your needs?

Don't get me wrong - I am not trying to paint the Registrar's Office as an Orwellian organization that does not want students to graduate. However, this worst-case scenario is not entirely far-fetched; the Bush White House had a well-documented history of altering transcripts from press conferences to better reflect the administration. When we live in a world in which print media has gone to the wayside, the word of authority is taking over the word of the general populace.

While I greatly appreciate the fact that I have a copy of the GA sitting on my bookshelf, I realize that with today's financial and social obligations we may not be able to afford every student that luxury. However, it is entirely necessary to print archival copies. Each academic department and residential college should receive between five and ten copies, and the library and Registrar's Office should also keep copies accessible to students.

Sure, a couple of trees might have to bite the dust for this to come to fruition. But aren't a few dead logs worth our students' academic protection?

Eric Doctor is a Lovett College senior and design director.

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