Thursday, January 27, 2011 » Approximately 140 returning students had to register for classes in early January, due to confusion with online registration. According to the registrar’s office, this was because students missed steps in the process.
“We have heard from quite a few students that they thought they were registered when they weren’t,” said Director of Records Michael Santarosa. “But for those students, we had contacted them.”
Santarosa said that starting in mid-November, associate dean of student engagement Dr. Brandon Hill sent at least seven e-mails to students who had not registered, asking about their plans for the spring semester.
Jade Tarr (jr) was one of the 140 students who registered for spring classes in January.
Tarr had recently switched majors, which she originally believed contributed to this mishap. She said she thought maybe her classes weren’t approved by her new adviser, but they were.
“I went to [my adviser’s] office and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I approved them. Remember when you sat down with me?’” Tarr said.
Tarr said that her first and only e-mail from Hill came on Jan. 6.
Ashley Jones (sr) registered for classes a few weeks later than most people with her status, due to payment issues. She received an e-mail shortly after with a survey regarding her plans for the semester.
This e-mail survey was sent to students on Nov. 22, according to Hill, the sender.
Jones finally registered; however, on Jan. 6, she received another e-mail stating that she was not, in fact, registered for classes.
“They told me I never got [my schedule] approved by my advisers,” Jones said. “I talked to my adviser and I had gotten everything figured out, but I guess there was something electronically he had to do that wasn’t ever done.”
Jones had to return to campus the Monday before classes started in order to register.
To combat confusion in the registration process, Santarosa said the registrar’s office will work with information technology to help online registration function better in the future.
“It would be nice if [students] had a confirmation e-mail that indicated [they successfully registered],” Santarosa said.
In a survey sent to both students and faculty, the registrar’s office received helpful feedback concerning online registration, said Santarosa. Recommendations from those surveys will be implemented in upcoming semesters.
“Our satisfaction survey results from students indicated that about 60 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with online registration processes and 23 percent were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied,” Santarosa said. “While most students are happy with it, we still want to do all we can to make the registration experience better for everyone.”