pinch me...i think i'm dreaming

So we got this e-mail from the registrar today.

This is what it said:

Fall 2005 grades are now being posted daily to myUM. If we receive final, curve conforming, grades before 3pm we will have them posted the next business day usually by 10am. Please keep in mind that the faculty have 5 weeks from the date of the exam to turn in grades. The majority of faculty use their full five weeks. If the course had no exam or a take home exam the grades will be due January 20, 2006 which is 5 weeks from the last exam day. Faculty who gave a multiple choice exam do NOT necessarily turn their grades in early. We do not hold grades. If grades are not posted we have not received them.

(Hey, what's the deal with "If we receive final, curve conforming grades"? So some profs turn in grades that don't conform to the curve? Is it only the rookie profs and the adjuncts who turn in grades that don't conform to the curve? Do they not understand it or do they figure it doesn't apply to them?...and how is it that the classes that have no exam or a paper have the longest? Shouldn't they have the least amount of time?)

I was stunned to receive this e-mail. This is the first time in my year and a half here that the registrar's office has attempted to communicate this information to the students. About 1,199 of the 1,200 students here want to know this information. Yet this is the first semester since I've been here that the registrar has sent out a mass e-mail.

I'm guessing they got sick of the countless e-mails from individual students complaining and asking the same questions.

Whatever the reason, I think this e-mail alone is cause for celebration. (What's next? Bathrooms with working toilets that don't flood every three days or smell like the inside of a Dumpster? Dare to dream!) Maybe the registrar's office will suddenly become a friendly place instead of the office you dread going into...