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Students deal with registration stress
Courtesy, Columnist - John Romlein II
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Columnist John Romlein II
As her Broncoweb class enrollment appointment time slowly approached, visual arts major Michelle Peters-Oliver anxiously awaited at her computer. All the while she constantly checked the clocks and the registration screen, ready to type in her prospective course numbers.
“It’s a lot more competitive because there are less teachers and there’s a lot of art students,” she said. “It’s really, really hard to get any classes you need to graduate.”
Peters-Oliver is among hundreds of art students who face a tight spring semester of classes in a department she feels has very few options for its students.
“There are no night classes for art people and same for that intersession thing,” she said. “Art is one of those majors where I think it would help to instead of having (classes) twice a week, if there was one that was three days a week and one less time.”
An Arbiter investigation from Feb. 5 examined the overall class registration crunch that departments campus-wide faced during the spring semester. In that report, Sharon McGuire, the associate vice president of Undergraduate Studies, told The Arbiter that a student should consult his or her advisor as to which classes in which they have problems enrolling. At that point, word can then be passed along to the head of his or her respective department.
Yet, the same report cited classes such as Art 118 (Digital Tools), has only 17 seats since it is a laboratory class. According to the registrar’s office, there are two sections being offered Tuesdays and Thursdays for the spring 2010 semester.
Despite the matter being a dominant issue in students’ academic careers, it is no stranger to Boise State. With the bleak economic picture, budget cutbacks and the Idaho State Legislature just two months away from convening over more cuts, the situation is likely to worsen before it improves.
“Boise State recognizes that the recession has affected everyone, creating hardships for our students, faculty and staff and their families,” BSU president Bob Kustra said in a Sept. 25 e-mail message to the campus community. “We will likely continue to evaluate expenditure reductions and student tuition and fee increases to support our future operations and to fund any new initiatives.”
Even the incoming freshmen encountered class registration troubles when they signed up after completing their orientation. Alyssa Velicky was among those who participated in the last freshman orientation over the summer.
“Basically when I left (orientation) I had only one class registered out of four that I initially wanted to sign up for,” she said. “For a long time I could not get a decent class registered. It was more annoying than anything.”
Velicky, fortunately, was able to successfully obtain permission numbers and have enough classes by the start of this fall semester. Her advice for future orientation participants is to sign up for an earlier orientation and not hesitate to sign up immediately.
But for Peters-Oliver, who is a senior, even early registration does not always help.
“I really don’t know how long it is going to take to graduate because even though I might be on the right track, if I can’t get into the classes then it’s going to take a lot longer,” she said.