Geneseo's new registration system, which seeks to give priority to graduating seniors and institutes a series of block registration windows, has drawn both praise and criticism from the student body.
The new system experienced technical glitches and long waits during time periods of heavy traffic on KnightWeb.
"We did run into a few technical glitches with the system being able to handle it, and now they're being reviewed and looked at," said Del Brown, college registrar. "While the philosophy behind what we're doing, we believe, is very sound … we didn't quite have enough power when we got up to the larger numbers [of students]."
According to Brown, on the first morning of registration many students panicked and closed their browsers during these high-traffic moments. The Office of the Registrar developed a KnightWeb message instructing students not to close their browsers and encouraging them to be patient with the system.
"The experience was not what we had hoped for students," Brown said. "I think it accomplished what we wanted, but … the smoothness of it was not at the level where we want it to be. We're going to rectify those [problems]. [Computing & Information Technologies] is looking to purchase a new server which will be able to handle the load."
Although these technical issues have drawn some criticism, other aspects of the new system have been met with praise.
According to Brown, the Registrar's Advisory Committee, made up of both faculty and students, called for a more equal approach to registration. While the former system allowed students to add or drop classes continuously over the course of a three-week period, the new system allots two days of registration to each class, resulting in what the committee believes is a more equal system.
"We did get comments from other students that said they had a positive experience and that they liked the fact that they were registering in a fair way," Brown said. "The comments that we get about that are [more numerous] than the negative. Most of the negative things about the process had to do with the system … at times, going so slow in the morning."
Brown is also satisfied with how quickly the new process registers large groups of students in a short period of time. On the second morning of registration, nearly 1,500 juniors registered within 15 minutes, a process that, according to Brown, would normally take three weeks.
The Office of the Registrar will re-open the system for open-registration after commencement and again in early August. During those times, academic departments will be able to adjust seats within their classes, allowing current students to get first choice before orientation begins. Open-registration will begin on May 16 and will run through June 10. The dates for August have yet to be announced.