The University of Texas at Austin is a well-oiled machine. With more than 50,000 students, it has to be. Because of TEX (the Telephone Enrollment eXchange), students don't have to wait in outrageously long lines for every problem and process involved with registration, course adds and drops, and the like (ask pre-computer-age alumni about the old punchcard system). Still, getting emergency student loans by touch-tone doesn't offset the oppressive sense of being a tiny cog in the Longhorn assembly line. But the friendly Texas drawl of UT senior vice president William Livingston -- the voice of TEX -- seems to magically alleviate students' small-fish syndrome, especially the empathetic "Goodbye, and good luck," with which every TEX session is terminated. And you still feel like a number-not-a-name after this hearty heave-ho, the "TEX Talk" service provides mental health guidance among its 500 topics.
