Courtesy of Professor Bloomfield's personal homepage
As the leaves finally change and students press courageously on through their midterms and papers, we find ourselves again at that pivotal point in the fall semester: choosing classes for the spring. But let’s face it: nobody likes SIS. It’s difficult to find classes unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, there are way too many buttons to press and menus to sift through, and ultimately, students become more stressed about the next semester’s classes than the ones in which they’re currently enrolled. Chanel Parks, a 4th year English major, says, “I feel like SIS is just this place in the ether of the internet that nobody wants to touch. It’s the untouchable of the internet.”
But, in spite of the universal hate-hate relationship pretty much everybody in the University has with SIS, there is a ray of class scheduling hope in the form of Lou’s List, brought to you from our very own “How Things Work” professor Louis Bloomfield.
Launched in the fall semester of 2006, Lou’s List is a simple, easy to understand compilation of all the upcoming courses for the next semester. It separates SIS’s entire course catalog into schools and then into departments. And for CLAS kids who have to deal with core and area requirements, Lou’s List also has a tab with lists of courses which satisfy one or more of these requirements!
Lou’s List also provides everything students need to know about the courses they’re looking through. Time, location, course number, instructor—everything is there. Hint: if you click on the 5 digit course number, a course description pops up with specific information about the class itself.
According to the website, Professor Bloomfield’s primary goal with Lou’s List is “to help students and faculty realize the best possible educational experience.” And suffice it to say, this goal has been achieved. Say goodbye to those late night battles with SIS, UVa. As you choose your classes, calmly clicking your way through Lou’s List one hundred fewer times than you would with SIS, jot down those 5 digit course numbers to punch into SIS’s enrollment requests, because sadly, we cannot avoid SIS forever. But with the help of Lou’s List, we can avoid hours of crying in frustration.
So thanks again, Professor Bloomfield. Not only do you make physics understandable and fun for all of us non-scientists with “How Things Work,” you help us further our personal academic careers with Lou’s List.
Check out Lou’s List here: http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/mySIS/CS2/index.php
