Registrar adjusts rules for priority registration

     The implementation of a new policy for priority registration took affect last week. The University Senate adopted a motion last February to help clarify and more stringently enforce GCSU’s policy on priority registration. Students with priority registration are allowed to register with the graduates and seniors on the first day of registration.
     No longer are the days of the care-free release of priority registration benefits by GCSU. The new policy makes sure that only student organizations that “significantly benefit the university” can grant priority registration to members.
One of the key components to the new policy is the Registration Task Force.
     “The policy itself gives the Registration Task Force the ability to overview applications for registration,” said registrar Kay Anderson. The Task Force will be in charge of review applications and determining whether an organization warrants priority registration or not.
     The idea for a new, stronger policy was devised after a study done by the Student Affairs Committee. The SAC was asked to review the “openness and fairness” of the present practice of priority registration. They found that there was a “practice” but no clear “procedure,” and after further review, this led to the new policy.
     “The first main difference in the new policy is that the old form was really more of a practice than a policy. Students could petition to get priority very easily,” Anderson said. “Many student organizations were getting priority with little review or direction.”
     Thus far the new policy has worked smoothly. Honor students, students with disabilities, athletes and ambassadors, SGA officers, Coverdell students, and student workers in Admissions and the Registrars Office all have priority registration under the new policy.
     Only two organizations that did have priority last semester failed to regain it for this semester.
     Another two, honors students and athletes, did not quite fit into the new policy. Anderson said it was important to note that no organization gets priority over the next, they all register at the same time.
     “Honors students’ priority registration (benefits) were honored by a previous commitment and the current honors students were grandfathered in,” said Anderson.
     She added that if the honors students want priority registration for the fall they will need to re-apply along with all the other organizations.
     The scholar-athletes were the only organization allowed priority registration through petition, which brought a sigh of relief from many athletes around campus.
     “Priority in registration has been extremely important for me,” said Brittany Hinger, a softball player and a senior mass communications major. “We (scholar-athletes) don’t want to be here for eight years and we have a schedule to play for the school and we have to have a schedule to go to school.”
     Luckily for other student athletes like Brittany, they need not worry. Upon reviewing other schools around Georgia’s priority registration policies, athletes were consistently on or near the top of the lists.
     “We have practice nearly all fall and spring, so getting classes at convenient times is really important,” Hinger added.
     The number one object that the policy is trying to change is the fairness of the registration system. The new changes aren’t very drastic, as just over 400 students will be granted priority under the new policy, many of whom already had it anyway.
But the policy makes sure that all organizations get a fair and equal chance to have their opinion heard on whether or not they deserve priority.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 1 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry