Several students had issues registering for spring and summer classes this semester because of glitches in the system.
Students were said to have several issues with registering this semester. One of the main issues was that the system was opened earlier than it should have been. Junior ad/PR major from Houston, Nikki Wilson, explained how this happened to her.
“When I registered, I was bumped out of a class because underclassmen had already registered early due to the system being open before it should have,” Wilson said.
According to Wilson, she was not the only person that had issues with registration.
“There were several people I knew with registration issues far worse than my own. There was just a lot of frustration and confusion and there wasn’t a lot being done to fix it, I think that was the worst part,” Wilson said.
Wilson believes it was a glitch, but that there should have been precautions made to make sure things like this don’t happen during registration.
Associate registrar for technology and operations, Bradon Owens, explains how the registrar’s office tries to avoid issues with registration.
“Our goal is to make the registration process as easy as possible for students,” Owens said.
Owens said that there are several procedures in place that help make registering easy for students.
“One way that we [make registering easier] is by meeting with academic advisors on a monthly basis,” Owens said. “During these meetings, we provide training and information regarding registration which will help them better prepare for and assist students with registration. We also have several pages on our website devoted to registration information.”
There was also a technology issue which allowed a very small number of freshman and sophomore students to register before their date. However, the Registrar’s Office was notified of the problem and those students’ registration was dropped the same day, so this did not conflict with the registration of junior and senior students.
Although Wilson said this whole experience was stressful for her, she got help immediately and eradicated the issue.
“The Depot was able to lead me and my friends in the right direction and my advisor took care of everything for me after one phone call,” Wilson said.
Wilson said she still believes that all the registration issues were a source of stress for many students.
“The whole situation could have been avoided and caused unnecessary stress to all the students,” Wilson said. “Registration should be fair and easy for everyone and unfortunately, this time around, it wasn’t.”