Holds can haunt class registration

With registration for the spring semester at GCSU beginning next week, academic advisors are busy meeting with students and making sure no holds prevent their registration. The registration period runs from Oct. 26-29.

However, students with certain holds on their records will not be permitted to register until the necessary steps are taken to have those holds removed.

The most common among those is the advisor hold, placed on students until they meet with their advisor to plan their schedule for the next semester.

Registrar A. Kay Anderson said there is a big reason that particular hold is enforced.”The advisor hold is there to make sure students are meeting with their advisors and having a good interaction with them,” Anderson said. “It’s there to review students’ progress, so that’s why we choose to do that.”

Rebecca Burns, a junior mass communication major, said that before she declared her major, she had to get holds taken off every semester.

“I had to go and tell my advisor what classes I had, and we had to make sure I was registering for the right ones,” Burns said. “And once I declared a major, I had to get my advisor to take another hold off.

Burns added that she likes the idea of students having to meet with their advisors.

“It’s nice to meet with them to get the face-to-face interaction. I think it’s a useful tool,” she said.

Junior business management major Eric Connolly had a different take.

“It shouldn’t be mandatory for upperclassmen to meet with their advisors,” Connolly said. “If you’ve had at least 60 hours or so, you’ve been through the process and should have a general idea of what’s going on.”

The other common hold is the immunization hold. Students who have not had their necessary immunizations and who are not exempt from the shots will not be allowed to register for a second semester of classes at GCSU. That rule stems from a decision made by the state Board of Regents. Anderson said the immunization hold tends to be common with many freshmen.

“We try to give them that grace period by giving them until the second semester, but those immunizations are critical,” Anderson said.

Other types of holds that affect registration include parking fines, library fees and academic probation. In the case of academic probation, students are not allowed to register for classes online.

“Students on probation have to come to our office and register in person,” Anderson said. “When you are on probation, you’re only able to register for classes that you are repeating.”

Anderson said there are steps students should take to make sure they are clear to register for classes.

“Students should always check their accounts for any holds and follow through on e-mail information that is sent out to them,” Anderson said. “We send out a couple of notifications each month to remind them.”

“They should also make a plan to meet with their advisor and try to do it ahead of time,” Anderson added. “It’s important to remember that advisors are going to be very busy meeting with their students and you don’t want to wait around and be too late.”

Anderson also stressed the importance of placing holds on registration as an incentive to pay off any fees.

“The university has the right to block activities if fees aren’t paid off,” she said. “So those rules are in place to enforce that.”

“As long as you’re notified, it’s fine. There has to be a way to make sure they pay,” Burns said.

Students wanting to check their hold records should go through the student tab on the myCATS Web site. After that, go to financial aid and student records to find hold records.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 23 2009. 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