The Course Offering Directory is out, and students are already preparing to grapple with ISIS and the perennial game of musical chairs that is class registration. Though students probably will not get all of the classes they want, a new waiting list procedure has been designed to alleviate the stress of registration, Assistant College Dean Rachel Most said.
Students will use an automated system to sign up to be placed on the waiting list for politics, economics, biology and Spanish classes for the spring semester, according to Most. The remaining departments will continue to use their current wait list procedure, and Most said she hopes the waiting list system will be available to all undergraduate departments next fall.
"We thought there was student interest in a more equitable system, and there was faculty interest in managing the hundreds of e-mails," Most said. "We are hoping students will not send e-mails and use the wait list."
Politics Prof. David Klein said the new system will eliminate the staggering amount of e-mail traffic professors receive -- often more than 100 e-mails -- each semester from students requesting admittance into their classes.
Students can place themselves on a maximum of three waiting lists after regular registration closes, Klein said.
"I think it will offer more of a fair playing field," Klein said.
If a course is restricted to professor permission, the waiting list will open up Nov. 11, and all other courses will open their waiting lists Nov. 23, Most said.
Professors will invite students to join their classes via e-mail around Jan. 17, Most said. Students then will have 24 hours to either accept or decline the invitation.
Professors will set their own criteria to determine which students they will extend invitations to join their classes, so students do not necessarily have to be first on the waiting list. Students' years, majors and registration times will be available to the professors, Klein said.
He added that the new system will not require course action forms. If students decide to join the class after receiving an invitation from the professor, the department and ISIS will automatically be notified, officially placing the student in the class.
The lack of paperwork will be beneficial to professors and students, Klein said. Professors will not have to keep an ongoing list of students seeking to gain admittance.
Students will receive an e-mail Wednesday detailing instructions for how to use the waiting lists and the Web site where students can access the lists, Most said.
Most said the deans will welcome feedback since the new process is in its developmental stages.
"As with anything new, there will be bugs in it," Most said.
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