Fund-amental flaw

Regarding the effect that the PeopleSoft-crafted OneStart registration system has had on the IU Student Association Rape Crisis Fund, the IDS once wrote:\n"The ... (fund) has suffered significantly since the registration program switch. The fund provides the primary source of support for the Middle Way House rape crisis services, including the On-Scene Advocacy program and the 24-hour crisis line. Because of the switch to PeopleSoft, fewer students are checking these boxes (on the fund-raising screen), which means organizations are receiving less money ... Dean of Students Richard McKaig said the logistics of the new program could cause the decrease in the number of people checking boxes. He said in the past, the registration program forced each student to click 'yes' or 'no' for each box, making students think about whether they wanted to donate money. Now the software simply lists each program and allows students to continue through the program without checking any boxes. 'We're making it too easy to ignore the check-offs,' McKaig said."\nThat was in November of 2005. So, what has been done about the problem lately? Apparently, not a damn thing.\nIn communicating with IUSA, we've learned that, despite entreaties from them and the Friends of Middle Way House; despite recommendations from Dean McKaig and the Commission on Personal Safety; the Office of the Registrar refuses to change OneStart's fund-raising screen.\nNow, we understand that when it comes to bureaucracy, the Registrar's Office tends to be the University's equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles, but you would think that they'd get this problem fixed before a wave of 38,000 students crashes into fall semester.\nWhat do we need to do to get some action on this? Do we really need to cite the Department of Jusitice's 2000 estimate that 20 to 25 percent of women attending institutions of higher education might be subject to rape or attempted rape? Or that IU Police Department statistics show 14 rapes in 2005? Or that a search of the IDS archives finds four reported rapes and one report of attempted rape for 2006? Or do we have to mention that, given the low reporting rates, those last numbers are almost certainly underestimates?\nDo we have to remind people, yet again, of the Middle Way House's noble work in fighting this problem? That 60 percent of the people it serves are IU students? That the switch-over to OneStart managed to slash its funding from around $25,000 to $16,000?\nOr do we have to note that this problem is yet another black eye for our notoriously lousy PeopleSoft registration system? That, for all the millions of dollars that the system has cost the University, you'd think it could be made to work in the IU community's favor on this one little thing. \nBetween IUSA, Friends of Middle Way House, the dean of students, the Commission on Personal Safety -- and, now, the IDS -- we're up to five campus institutions pushing the Registrar's Office to fix this. How many more will it take? Do we need to get a signed letter from the president? The provost? Coach Hep?