Hundreds of students from the state-run Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) have been waiting in long lines inside and outside the Pedro Mir library to try and solve the problems that are preventing them from registering for the semester that is scheduled to start on Monday 22 January.
The problems involve the password or identification number that they need to get in to the UASD web page, and the selection of courses. Many students say they have tried to solve the issue up to four times and some said that they arrived at 7:30am and by 11:30am had still not been able to register.
UASD rector Mateo Aquino Febrillet announced the postponement of the start of the semester from 14 to 22 January to give time for the delayed registrations due to the technical problems.
Aquino Febrillet agreed that the UASD IT system failed when having to respond to so many people trying to get into the web page at the same time.
But Jose Alberto Perez, who works in the registration department at the UASD, said that the main problem was with the students’ passwords. He said that as they didn’t use email often, many had forgotten their passwords and tried to enter their Facebook passwords. In other cases they were using a friend’s email and if they also were a UASD student who is already in the system so they could not use it. In addition, he said, many did not know the basics of how to use computers.
Announcing the postponement of the start of classes on Monday, 7 January, Aquino Febrillet had said that the state university would no longer charge tuition to students from public schools. These would only have to pay a RD$200 registration fee starting this term. The wisdom of the announcement is questionable and could serve to further discourage students making an effort to pass their classes. The UASD is notorious for its large number of “professional” students that have taken advantage of the already very low fees the university had charged. Many students are still enrolled in the university after 20-25 years, including the elected president of the main student association. The university has the lowest ratio of enrolled students to graduates of any in the Dominican Republic despite its high cost to taxpayers and burgeoning bureaucracy.