At a recent meeting of Student Association's Student Affairs committee, a subcommittee focused in part on improving the registration process, committee members discussed past changes and how students and faculty have received them.
According to a survey conducted in spring 2011, the main problems students have with registration are closed sections, classes offered at the same time and partial overlap. The survey also provided statistics: 10 percent of polled students said they have never had problems with registration; 37 percent said they've had problems most semesters.
Associate Dean of the College Savitri Iyer said that closed sections have always been an issue, especially in humanities courses and INTD 105.
"We're trying to get as many sections as possible," she said. "We have more students … and we have fewer faculty … There's a higher demand for seats."
Eight one-year positions have been hired, which Iyer said will help this academic year, though it's only temporary.
Faculty members explained that they try to arrange courses in their own departments so that they aren't overlapping or at the same time, but they rarely look at other departments' schedules.
The system of assigning a couple days of registration, rather than the full week, for each class year is fairly new. There's also what Iyer referred to as a "slow-release" system, where a small number of seats are opened for each period of registration. This ensures that underclassmen have the opportunity to get into the classes they need that seniors might only be taking as fillers.
Iyer explained that students don't necessarily come to Geneseo wanting to be a specific major; they take the introductory course and realize they're interested.
At the same time, Iyer said the dean's office wants seniors to be able to take "that course they've always wanted to take."
"I appreciate it; you're a senior … We want seniors to have that choice," she said.
The dean's office is considering a waitlist option for students closed out of courses in which they are interested. The office is still working out how to use the waitlist in congruence with major restrictions.
Courses restricted to majors have also been an issue for some students; however, all major restrictions come off at the end of advanced registration.
"We don't want to put major restrictions on courses unless it's in the bulletin," Iyer said.
According to Iyer, registration for spring 2012 has been going smoothly so far.
"We didn't have any issues yesterday [Oct. 31] or today," she said.
Scheduling for each day is staggered with half of each daily group registering at 7 a.m. and half at 7:30 a.m. Computing & Information Technology has assured the dean's office that the system will not go down.