This spring's registration survey yielded over 1,600 responses and wrought complaints similar to those reported in previous years; students reported being closed out of classes and voiced frustration with overlapping sections and the problem of two courses being offered in the same time slot.
"The issue about not enough seats - that really hasn't improved," said Savi Iyer, physics professor and associate dean of the college. "With the financial situation as it is, we've had to cut adjunct budgets so that leaves fewer faculty available to teach."
General education courses receive top priority and have avoided drastic seat decreases. "If there are cuts in a department," said Iyer, "[General education] seats are not the first to go."
Limited seat availability contributed in part to a policy instated last year that limited first year student registration to 12 credits - typically four courses - upon entry.
"We're not offering as many seats as we did, say, four years ago," Iyer said. Freshmen are, however, able to add classes during the add-drop period.
"At first I thought it was a really good idea that they were giving us time to adapt," said freshman Christine Nassar. "But now all my classes are very easy, so I'm a little bored."
Other freshmen agreed. "I don't have a lot to do," freshman Casey Wagoner said. Freshman Maggie Wayne was able to secure an override slip that granted her the opportunity to add an extra course during the add-drop period.
The second most prevalent complaint voiced in the registration survey involved the overlap of classes. This arises from "the 15 minute conflict between the Monday/Wednesday 75-minute classes, and the Monday/Wednesday/Friday 50-minute classes," Iyer said. "Faculty like both formats so it does get a bit tricky."
In spite of complaints, Iyer said that the dean's office "won't waive that 15 minute conflict."
"It's not really only 15 minutes; it's two 15 minutes blocks, which is a half hour per week for 15 weeks and we can't waive that," she said. "If it's a smaller conflict that's one thing, but that's a substantial amount."
For the spring 2011 semester, administration has attempted to fix the problem of courses being offered at the same time. "We worked with chairs to see if we can spread them out a little bit and minimize conflict," Iyer said. "I'm hoping it'll be a little better."
Though Iyer said she and the rest of the administration will remain cognizant of the problems that arose from the survey responses, no major changes have been made for the spring registration process.