Instead of registering for classes online, students had to input schedule information from a dial-tone phone because of two viruses that crippled the campus network from Tuesday to Saturday of last week.

Faxes, not e-mails, were the line of communication. The technology of today reverted to yesterday.

Yet, university employees said the registration process did not take any more time than normal for the hundreds of students registering.

“It actually went a lot smoother than I thought it might,” said Fraun Lewis, assistant director of academic advising. “It was a definite challenge, I’ll just put it that way.”

The two viruses impeded the campus user access to the Internet and e-mail. The online registration system, PAWS, reconnected online Wednesday but many of the campus’ computers were not online until Friday and Saturday.

The network viruses may have halted online traffic, but registration workers called the process a “big speed bump.”

“I think considering the major thing that happened,” Sue Harvey, director of registration, said, “we really did quite well.”

Because of the network problems, administration first agreed to waive the late registration fee until Tuesday, then until the weekend.

That student accommodation resulted in patience.

Molly Evans, assistant director of registration, said, “In general, they (students) all seemed very understanding. It wasn’t a situation where they said, ‘Why are we waiting? Why can’t you do this?'”

“I think people are becoming more savvy about computers. They understand that when it doesn’t work, there’s nothing you can do about it. So, that made it easier for everybody.”

Lewis said most students who register for classes at this time of the year are late freshmen, transfer students and returning students who may have had a class canceled.

The timeframe of registering students with PAWS and by phone were comparable, Lewis says.

“With the PAWS system, you have so many options, you can see what’s available” Lewis said. “With touchtone … it’s not as user friendly. This is a time though when students are not choosy about courses and times.”

Workers from Academic Advising and Registration Office referred most of the students to the PAWS touchtone dial phone system. Some classes were inputted manually from computers linked directly to the mainframe in the Student Services Building. Faxes, not e-mails, were the way students were waived into certain classes.

Off-campus dial-up connections were still showing problems, with no estimated timeframe for when the connection would be back at top standards, the computer Help Desk said late Tuesday.