Registering for my first class

So, I've been a U of Mn employee for just under 6 months. One of the benefits of being a U of Mn employee is that tuition is just about free. One still has to pay one's fees and such, but tuition is covered. I've wished for awhile that I knew more about how statistics operates. So, a couple weeks ago, I decided to take a stats class - specifically, an undergrad stats class "for scientists and engineers".

Given the difficulties I've had with U bureaucracy, I expected this to be difficult. I expected that I'd be told "you need to get these four forms filled out in triplicate, you need to get the permission of the instructor, the department, your department head, and some guy who's on vacation until next week, you need to submit your SAT scores and write an essay, and anyway, you're too late to register for fall semester, and it's too early to register for spring 2006, so go away and come back later."

Gosh, was I surprised.

The U has a one stop "student services center". I had to wait 5 minutes in line for my turn, and then told the counselor at the desk "Hi, I'm Pete, I'm an employee, I want to take a class. What do I have to do?"

Ten minutes later, I was registered and confirmed, and had the form in hand that I needed to get filled out to get the tuition cost covered. Ten minutes after that, I had the form signed by my department's HR coordinator, and everything was paid for.

I was very pleasantly surprised, and I'm very pleased to see that the U is able to deal with students efficiently, even if they don't always deal with employees efficiently.