Priority registration evokes mixed feelings

Imagine the following scenario. You're in your fifth year at Tech and go online to register for classes for the upcoming semester. You choose the LCC option and scroll down to your preferred choice for your last humanities credit, only to find-surprise-that the class is already full.

Class registration is based on a course credit system: the more credits you accumulate, the earlier you get to register. So who, then, are these people filling up classes before the graduating seniors?

The answer is a selective group of students with a special status: priority registration. These are athletes, disabled students, FASET leaders, tour guides, Presidential Scholars and Registrar office assistants, all of whom, for various reasons, get to register first, regardless of the number of credits accumulated.

"Well, for example, the disabled students, some of them are limited in the buildings in which they can have classes, and.if you're in a wheelchair, you might not have time to get from one location to another," associate registrar Debbie Williamson said. "So their schedule has to be planned with a little more thought as far as location."

Priority registration for the disabled is common at most universities, but Tech tacks on several other groups as well. Athletes have to schedule morning classes to keep the afternoons free for practice and away games. Tour guides must be available for tours at the times advertised on the Institute's website. FASET leaders and students who assist the Registrar's office during Phase II are given priority registration for one semester in lieu of monetary compensation.

And Presidential Scholars? Well, it's just part of the package deal.

Some students consider this unfair bias in favor of certain extracurricular activities.

"It just seems like Georgia Tech is rewarding anyone doing something other than just attending classes," said Ajay Patel, a second-year Physics major. "But there are so many other ways to get involved, I don't see why it has to be narrowed down to those listed."

Others have a more mixed reaction, understanding the reasoning behind some activities but not others.

"[FASET leaders and tour guides] help out a lot around campus, and they aren't exactly getting paid to do it," said Ricky Whelchel, a second-year Material Science and Engineering major. "[But] athletes is pushing it. A lot of them get free school in the first place."

Priority registration can cause a lot of grief for the rest of the student body. Popular humanities and elective courses sometimes fill up with priority registration students before anybody else's time ticket starts.

At an Institute where students often complain about finding classes too full even in their own major, priority registration often exacerbates the problem.

"Most people would probably agree that the academic effort they put in should give them priority in registering for their academic schedule," said Steve Heitner, a fifth-year Biology and Biochemistry major.

"The further you progress in the curriculum, the fewer classes are offered, and more potential for a conflict.I can understand how somebody might get upset that a class they absolutely need to take is not available because somebody else that may not need to be taking it got priority registration," Heitner said.

Other students see it as less of a problem, pointing out that any student can get priority registration if they want it badly enough.

"If people really want priority registration, they can do something to get it, like being a tour guide or helping the office," said Brian Williams, a fourth-year Discrete Math major. "There aren't so many people out there with priority registration that it makes getting any specific class impossible. So I don't see anything wrong with it."

But the fault lies not so much with the Registrar's office as with the individual schools. Each school is responsible for determining its own class schedule and ensuring that there are enough sections available to feed the demand.

"The Registrar has absolutely no jurisdiction on how many seats are put out there, how many overloads, what time they're offered, who's teaching," associate registrar Candy Carson said. "We see it when you see it."

Most schools try to solve the problem for at least some courses by restricting by major, reserving seats or requiring a permit for registration.

"[Students need to] talk to these people and the department and say, 'Look, this is what's happening. Can you reserve some seats for us or restrict it by major or whatever and help us?'" Carson said.

"In some cases, the department may not even be aware that that's even a problem.. [The students] need to make their concerns aware to the people that can really help," she said.

So what can students do if they discover a class is full? They should request an overload for the course. Carson pointed out that they can also keep an eye on OSCAR during Phase II registration to see if any seats open up.

"People hold seats, and they register more hours than they intend to take," she said. "So a lot of the time, students are doing this to each other, and then at phase II they'll decide what they want to take, and a lot of seats open up naturally that way."

Nevertheless, the priority registration system is likely to remain unchanged for the time being.

"I'm fresh off the boat, and that is not on my radar screen right now," said registrar Rita Pikowsky. "I have a lot of other things I need to learn, so I would say that no, it's not on our plate right now.and I don't really expect that it will be for awhile."

But Pikowsky encourages students to voice their opinions to her at comments@registrar.gatech.edu and to visit the Registrar's home page at www.registrar.gatech.edu.