It’s registration time again, which means it’s time to cross your fingers, hope for the best, log onto StagWeb and find your lucky number, as you do every semester.
This process ends with either a sigh of relief at a promising number or a cry of despair because, once again, you have been dished out the worst lottery number known to mankind and will therefore be waking up for classes at the crack of dawn instead of for that class you really need.
We have all heard the sob story, and most of us have lived through it during at least one semester while at Fairfield.
The administration has heard it too, resulting in the formation of a committee in response to students’ dissatisfaction with registration.
The committee will re-evaluate the entire registration process to pinpoint where and how appropriate changes may be made in order to meet the needs and desires of both students and faculty.
The first step in this process will be an electronic wait-list system.
“The advantage of this new system will be two-fold,” as stated in the Fall 2008 registration course booklet.
“First, it will provide an easier and more equitable way for undergraduate students to register for spaces that become available in closed courses that they needed and secondly, it will provide deans and department chairs with valuable ‘demand’ information on the courses that student’s desire,” the booklet statement continued.
Seniors will take the top spots on the waiting list so that they will get a spot in classes they need in order to complete their degrees.
This process will also enable deans and chairs to analyze the demand for certain classes and assist in their planning for the future and the further changes that will be implemented.
Associate Academic Vice President Mary Frances Malone said in a letter to faculty, “The Committee believes that the University needs to take a first step, and the electronic wait-list will further provide this opportunity.”
“The wait-list system will, we hope, provide a fairer system of populating courses throughout the various programs of study,” according to Jimmarck Cuenta ’08, FUSA secretary of academics. “Additionally, it will provide concrete information about demand for courses/sections, information that has been thus far speculative.”
“I think the wait-list system is a good idea,” said Samantha Nestor ’10, who had to take four 9:30 a.m. classes this semester because other time blocks filled too quickly.
“Hopefully it will provide me with an opportunity to take the classes I want to take,” she said.
Tim O’Connor ’10 agreed that the wait-list system could be a positive change because it gives more flexibility to people with bad lottery numbers.
Malone sees the electronic wait-list system as an opportunity for the administration to get important data about what students and their advisors really want.
“I think everyone would like to see a less-complex registration process,” said Malone, who is chair of the committee of faculty, administrators and students.
With the newfound information gathered from this upcoming registration period, the committee will compare the process with that of what Malone calls “benchmark” schools that are comparable to Fairfield, such as Villanova, Loyola and Holy Cross.
A small focus group of seniors gathered earlier this year to come up with a list of problems and possible solutions regarding the registration process, which will also be used by the committee.
Some issues that the registration committee is considering include preferential registration for specific groups of students, the current three-step process of registration, the efficient use of classroom space, the time schedule and the distribution of sections across all time codes, according to Cuenta.
University Registrar Robert Russo said the another concern of the committee include ensuring that classes are evenly distributed throughout each department to help work with students’ schedules. This will hopefully eliminate the possibility of, for example, all philosophy classes being offered at 9:30 a.m.
Another new implementation would require all freshmen to have at least one full-time faculty member, as opposed to having all adjunct professors.
Students are more engaged and more likely to stay at their school if they have at least one full-time teacher, according to an article published by the Chronicle of Higher Education last month.
As freshmen, Kelly Belchere ’11 and Sam DeSantis ’11 have not dealt with registration inconveniences, but hope that changes made to the process will help them avoid complications in the future.
“I appreciate it,” said Belchere of the electronic wait-list system. “I think it will help.”
Malone said she anticipates that the committee’s evaluation will probably be a year-long process, and more changes will be seen some time next year.
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