In the University’s best class registration decision since moving the process online, administrators significantly cut the amount of students with access to priority registration. It took administrators years to realize that students without serious scheduling constraints are using “priority” registration simply as a luxury.
There is obviously something wrong when 26 percent of students have early registration privileges. Instead of distributing the process on a need basis, administrators dispensed the privilege at will, often to recruit students for certain groups such as the honors program or Student Admissions Representatives (STAR). The administration is right in its recent decision to cut the fat out of the early registration process – priority class selection should be reserved for students with serious scheduling demands like athletes.
The cuts will help the overall registration system for all students. It will make it fairer, especially for upperclassmen, as juniors and seniors are consistently locked out of classes they need for graduation by the copious amount of underclassmen with priority registration.
Complaints by groups that were cut, like the honors program and STAR, are unfounded. Honor students do not have any special activities that require them to have early registration and the STARs’ one-hour-a-week tour is hardly enough to require the privilege. People who have jobs or internships, which often take up many hours a week, are able to schedule their classes around outside activities without the benefit of priority registration.
Other groups that do need early registration will retain it. For example, basketball players simply cannot have classes on game nights. They are forced to take heavier class loads on other days to avoid the scheduling conflict.
The elimination of so many students from priority registration will loosen up the system for all students. This is not that bad of a deal for students that lost priority registration – and it is much better for the rest of the student body.
