Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Students consider registeration tiresome

As students continue registering for classes at Saint Mary's, many wonder why the Notre Dame and Saint Mary's procedures are different - and why many juniors and seniors at the College are left with no choice but to camp out overnight in order to sign up for classes required to graduate.Saint Mary's maintains advanced registration in person for those students who need specific classes to complete their majors. Saint Mary's registrar Lorraine Kitchner said that under the College's current system, the only way for upperclassmen to ensure that underclassmen do not register for advanced classes in their places is to wait it out. Kitchner pointed out that students can register for their general education and elective classes using PRISM, the online system at Saint Mary's. English department chair Max Westler explained the process of registering further. "Seniors should have already seen their advisors," Westler said. "All others should be at their specific registration times, [ready to sign up for courses,]."Westler said that students usually begin waiting in line about a half an hour before registration actually begins. Once the line starts moving, all English majors should be finished with the registration process within another 30 minutes. Some department chairs, on the other hand, allow students to register for their classes required for their major using the Banner system. Education department chair Dale Banks was surprised to hear not all majors had switched to using online registration. "[We've been using] Banner since it's been around," Banks said. Still, education majors meet with their advisors prior to accessing Banner in order to make sure they are on track with their requirements. The chemistry department does not have advanced registration, Kitchner said, mainly because it is not as popular of a major. While each department at Saint Mary's has a different process of allowing juniors and seniors to register for classes required for their majors, many agree that web registration for all classes would be beneficial. Westler would "like to see online registration if the College decides to boost in this direction." "Students would prefer [web registration]," Spaulding said. Notre Dame began web registration through IrishLink in the fall of 2001. Notre Dame associate registrar Lora Spaulding said the main reason web registration was created was for the convenience of the students. "We had been wanting to switch to [web registration] for quite some time," Spaulding said, "but it took a long time before the system was secured." In the fall of 1989, Notre Dame students were encouraged to use a phone dial-up service or kiosk to sign up for their spring 1990 courses. That was followed by a one-year temporary registration system in which students used terminals in the basement of the Hesburgh Library before the switch to IrishLink.