If robots do not kill me before I reach the halcyon nostalgia of old age, I will always remember 2009 as the year mechanical anonymity suppressed the essence of humanity at N.C. State.

Perhaps it was the earlier election of a Terminator unit as the head of a state economy that represents 13 percent of the nation’s total gross domestic product that truly heralded the revolution to come.

Or maybe I should have guessed from the droves of people across the nation willing to wait countless hours in lines to be one of the first to own a new cell phone.

Forgive me for my distractions, but I was not fully cognizant of the eventual machine take-over until I experienced WebAssign at NCSU.

A message from the login screen for WebAssign:

“A Message to Faculty and Students: 
WebAssign has been experiencing high user traffic resulting in sluggish performance Sunday through Thursday from 9 p.m. EST to 11 p.m. EST. At all other times of the week, the system performs efficiently. We are currently working to resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to deliver the quality experience you deserve.”

Hmmm … let me get this straight. WebAssign, a service students are required to pay for in addition to their textbook expenses, cannot handle the “user traffic” at certain times (often not limited to the times listed in their message) and therefore results in “sluggish performance” (or a complete inability to log in). Did those contributing to WebAssign’s “high user traffic” not pay for access to their system? Should they not be guaranteed uninterrupted service in return for their payment? How many students, I wonder, have been unable to complete assignments or even submit assignments as a result of WebAssign’s inadequacy?

And what of the professors? Are they sensitive to the inadequacies of WebAssign, or is it of little concern to them as WebAssign has eliminated the need for professors or TAs to actually grade student work? Leave it to the machine. The answer is not a simple one, but one that must be evaluated on a professor-to-professor basis.

Some may respond that as WebAssign experiences “sluggish” performance at certain times, it is the students’ responsibility to complete their WebAssign work at non-peak hours (because we all know that students have nothing to do but wait for non-peak hours during which they can submit their WebAssign work), while others are doing their best to make up for a system that has failed their students. Students have jobs, families to support, disabilities or any number of priorities that demand their attention during “non-peak” hours — is it really fair to demand them to manage their WebAssign workload hours or days before it is due?

So, to the WebAssign Team, don’t apologize to the students for the “inconvenience” of your inadequate system –- apologize to them for the negative impact your inadequacy has had on the students’ GPAs. And to the professors unwilling to work around the current WebAssign snafu, shame on you -– you are here for the students, not the other way around.