Simpsonian

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News

Beginning this week, students will be able to select their own May Term Courses online. Jen Cornwell/Staff Photographer

Beginning this week, students have the ability to register by themselves online. If everything runs smoothly, the administration plans to take this plan of action for semester-long courses.

According to Academic Dean John Bolen, the school is testing this program for the May Term to see if it will work. The faculty prefers this plan because it would be a lot quicker.

"This is just a trial run for May Term to see if everything will run smoothly," Bolen said.

Freshmen Anna Holley thinks the new way of registering sounds like a good proposal.

"I think it would be a great idea if it worked," Holley said. "It sounds like it would be an efficient way to register for classes, so why not try it out?"

To register using the new process, all students must report to their adviser who will then tell students when they can begin registration for their class. Registration will begin on Monday, Feb. 25 at 5 p.m. Students will be assigned to half-hour time slots between 5 and 7:30 pm. The time slot a student is given is the time a student can start registering, but they can continue to register any time after that. The way students will be assigned a time to register for classes will be in order of the most completed credits.

"If you have 120 completed credits and no one has more than that, then you will register first," Bolen said. "There will be somebody in the registrar's office every night from 5 to 8 p.m. so if a student has a problem they can call the registrar's office at extension 1642."

According to Bolen, if the school decided to use this system for a whole semester, it would not start until next fall to register for spring semester courses.

Bolen said if Simpson chooses this form of registration, the process could take four or five days instead of three months.

The hope is to make it so eventually all students can have the ability to add or drop their own classes and become more responsible for their education in the process.

"The positive, to me, of students registering themselves is that then students have more of a vested interest in what they are in," Bolen said. "It's also going to make students more aware of their degree audit. For example, they need to follow that, they need to pay attention to that. It's going to help them take more responsibility for themselves and for their academic program here."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools