As students begin registering for fall classes this week, the Office of the University Registrar expressed confidence that a sequel to the ISIS registration nightmare of last semester will be averted.
Last fall, when a glitch in the code allowed only a few students onto the online registration system at a time, administrators were forced to delay registration in order to fix the system. University officials then attempted to continue class enrollment as scheduled.
In the resulting confusion, students got out of their proscribed sequence and in many cases priority registration was not maintained. Administrators and deans were inundated with complaints from fourth years and other students unable to enter classes filled with underclassmen. In response to these complaints, administrators shut down the system entirely and rescheduled registration to begin after Thanksgiving break.
To maintain a steady rate for students logging onto the system this spring, Asst. Registrar Robert LeHeup said the Office of the University Registrar lowered the number of students released at a given time.
The new system only allows 50 students to register for classes every 10 minutes. Previously, between 60 to 250 students were released every 30 minutes.
Registrars also have restricted registration hours to between 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. in an attempt to address faculty concerns about students missing class and to shift usage to non-peak hours earlier and later in the day.
"We tried to shift demand to later in the day when ISIS was getting few demands from employees," LeHeup said.
University Registrar Carol Stanley said ISIS performance problems have existed for a number of semesters, and there has been an ongoing effort on the part of the Registrar's Office to identify the root causes. Last fall brought these problems to the attention of the entire University community.
Since then, Stanley said she has coordinated efforts with Student Council members and ITC representatives in meetings to brainstorm possible improvements to the system, including spreading out registration to ensure only a gradual increase of logins.
"What was happening was we were putting too many students in the process all at the same time," Stanley said.
Second-year College student Rick Wampler, who registered for classes yesterday, said he was pleased with the ease with which he could sign up for courses with the decreased level of traffic on the site.
"The best improvement was I could look through the [Course Offering Directory] without being kicked off," Wampler said.
Despite calls to scrap the much-maligned system, Stanley and Wampler agreed online registration is the best fit for the University, which has such a large and diverse student population.
"It's probably the most efficient way, as long as the system runs well," Wampler said.
After joining the University community when registration meant long lines and punch cards, Stanley said the University should use ISIS or some similar program at least for the foreseeable future.
Despite past ISIS problems, Stanley said registration has "come much farther than you can fathom"
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