Recent registration cycle serves as “test case”
More students were able to register simultaneously for spring 2019 classes this semester as a result of IT updates designed to keep the server from crashing.
Interim Registrar Gerard Donahue said administrators in the St. Joe’s Office of Information Technology informed him earlier this semester that they had made changes to the system that doubled the amount of students able to register at once.
In previous years, students were assigned to one of five time slots on their class’ registration day: 7 a.m., which was reserved for students with priority status, 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
As a result of server improvements, this year, only three time slots were available: 9 a.m. for priority registration, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Students who registered at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. last spring were assigned to the 1 p.m. slot this fall. Likewise, students who registered at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. last registration cycle were given the 11 a.m. slot this year.
Moving the 7 a.m. time slot to 9 a.m. enabled more staff to be on hand in case of a system emergency, Donahue said.
“Starting at 9 a.m., we didn’t have to bring staff personnel in early,” Donahue said. “And that’s not just our office. There’s advising offices all over campus as well as folks in the ground floor of Bellarmine who are always around for registration too.”
Donahue said he did not think the 3 p.m. slot would be missed.
“Let’s be honest,” Donahue said. “Nobody wants to register at 3 p.m.”
But that was not the case for Interdisciplinary Health Services (IHS) major Sarah Lathrop ’19, who was assigned to the 1 p.m. time slot this semester. She said the removal of the 3 p.m. pick time made her registration experience more difficult.
“Having no one registering at the time later than me, because I had the 1 p.m. pick time, kind of made everything hectic,” Lathrop said. “So it was literally the last batch of seniors all picking together.”
Lathrop said registration has always been difficult for her because of her major.
“A lot of people take [IHS classes] as elective classes, so you’re not only competing with your major for classes, you’re competing with a lot of non-majors,” Lathrop said.
Donahue said he hopes that future registration cycles will allow larger groups of students to register together, eventually narrowing it down to one group per class plus a separate time for priority registration.
“Basically, we would like to see all the students be able to register at the same time,” Donahue said. “Seniors, go. Juniors, go. Sophomores, go. That would be the ideal.”
Students who have priority status include Division I athletes, honors students, service learning leaders and ROTC cadets, and others, with some groups changing from year to year, Donahue said.
Claire Potosky ’20, who is currently studying abroad in Rome, Italy, said her registration experience this semester was “surprisingly stressful” despite her priority status as an honors student.
In addition to working around the time zone difference, Potosky said she was not able to get into the only honors class that would fit into her schedule because she was not aware it was a continuation of a class that she wasn’t able to take while studying abroad.
“I’m just hoping to get an honors class so that I can stay in the program and continue to have priority status,” Potosky said in an email to The Hawk.
This semester’s registration served as a test cycle, Donahue said.
“Going forward, like we’ve alluded to here, we’d like to see there just be a priority group and then everyone else within each class,” Donahue said. “That would be the fairest way. And from managing and setting all this up, it would make it a lot more streamlined as well.”