To prepare for fall 2021 registration, Alex Wilkes ’22, a marketing and business analytics double major, created spreadsheets with first choices, as well as back-up schedules.

“I always say picking classes is more stressful than midterms and finals because you don’t know what’s going to happen or what to expect,” Wilkes said.

Registration began on April 6 for the fall 2021 semester. Students register in blocks, with 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. registration times. During this registration period, students, like Wilkes, have had to strategically navigate variables such as mixed modalities, major requirements and General Education Program (GEP) requirements, all while Banner, the university’s registration system, unexpectedly crashed on April 8 at 1 p.m.

The registration system crashed for 1,416 users, according to Jim Brady, director of infrastructure services. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) reported the outage on its IT status page and on The Nest.

“We believe that the volume of users initiating transactions on [Banner] during registration temporarily overwhelmed the server’s resources,” Brady wrote in response to written questions from The Hawk. “The good news is that the server is virtual and more memory was added to resolve the issue within 30 minutes.”

Mary Agnes Dunn ’22, who registered for courses during the system crash, said while she was still able to get through her registration on time, some students were not afforded the time in their day to manage the outage like she was.

“If you didn’t have the time to refresh the page and sit there, it was kind of unfair,” Dunn said.

Although Wilkes didn’t have technological issues during registration, her main focus was getting into classes regardless of whether it was her preferred modality. She said she prefers hyflex classes, but for classes with limited open seats, like the senior business policy capstone or the required GEP natural science course, she took any open modality.

“I like having some days online and some days in person because it’s nice, but I mainly look for just getting the classes that I want,” Wilkes said.

Cheryl McConnell, Ph.D., provost and vice president of academic affairs, wrote in a March 31 university announcement that the university intends to expand on-ground capabilities in the fall, offering a “large majority” of on-ground classes in person.

McConnell wrote that there would also be an “early pre-fall drop/add period in August due to instructional method changes that will likely provide more on-ground options.”

This semester, approximately 19% of all classes offered are fully face to face with the rest being a mix of hybrid, hyflex or fully online, according to Gabrielle Lacherza, public relations manager. Lacherza said the breakdown of how many courses are being offered in each modality for the fall is not yet available.

Denisa Sondai ’23, a psychology major who is fully remote this semester, said registering for classes this semester was easier than last since she intends on being on campus next semester.

“I had to take a random elective this semester because I could not find a fifth class offered online,” Sondai said. “So I would definitely say it’s way easier being face to face to figure out my classes.”

Unlike Sondai, students who wanted to remain fully remote for the fall semester
had until March 24 to request a fully remote schedule. Students who missed the deadline and have “documented medical/mental health concerns, disability or extraordinary circumstances” are able to request a fully remote schedule through the Extraordinary Request Form.

According to an email sent to students in the College of Arts and Sciences and The Haub School of Business on March 19, “All approvals for fully remote that are granted at this time are provisional, pending the release of updated public health guidelines for in-person instruction in higher education. All applications will be re-evaluated on June 1.”

Despite the challenges, Wilkes said, overall, her registration went smoothly and she’s looking forward to more in-person classes.

“I am excited to have more face-to-face classes because I think it’s the first step to getting back to normalcy,” Wilkes said. “It’s good because I am seeing changes on campus and we got the university email saying that they’re going to offer more in-person classes, so I’m happy to see what next year may be like.”