Registration can present a significant setback for students at CSI.

By Eric J Copeland

Upon initially enrolling at CSI students likely find little to no problems, however after their first or second semester registration likely rears its ugly head.

This problem may not make much sense depending on how far into your respective degree you are. However, I assure you that sooner or later registration will become a problem as it has for many students including myself. It seems as if the farther students get into their degree the more problems, they encounter including classes not being offered for their major or other problems such as the TALA requirement.

A familiar feeling to most is the feeling of going onto DegreeWorks and seeing the many different options of classes they need for their major requirement. However, when going into the schedule builder and entering the class codes students are met with a blank screen. This does not just happen for one or two classes but a whole bundle. Classes such as COM 261, CIN 261, and COM 330 and many more are just empty from the schedule builder. In fact, for a communications major focusing on journalism such as myself I find myself with very few options. My intermediate/advanced practice in journalism requirement which has 8 classes listed that fulfill the requirement, in fact offers none, at least according to the schedule builder.

This clearly raises a problem. How is a student such as myself, who is less than a year away from graduating, meant to get their degree if the required classes are not offered here. This is not the only issue with registration. Another common issue shared among students is that the TALA requirement interferes with their major. The reason the TALA requirement proves to be such an issue for students is that the only classes that satisfy the requirement are classes that are either not offered or have nothing to do with their field of studies. In my personal experience with TALA there is also very little wiggle room in terms of what classes count towards the requirement. While CIN 200 classes are offered and accepted for the requirement, classes such as CIN 220 do not count. This leads to a confusion among students as to what class they can take to meet the TALA requirement and graduate.

Now this raises quite a few questions about our current registration system at CSI. Clearly the system is flawed, I’m sure many of you can also do a quick search of classes that count towards your major and at least find a few that never seem to be offered no matter the semester. This problem is not impossible to solve however, and I have had plenty of time to think about it. One way to fix some of the issues with the registration process is to get rid of the TALA requirement. It offers nothing in terms of most majors, is difficult to find in the first place and forcing it upon students who have no interest in the classes that are offered just leads to unneeded frustration. The most important step that needs to be taken to fix the registration process is to remove all the classes that are no longer offered at the college. There is no reason anyone should go on DegreeWorks and find out that classes they need to take that are required for their major’s requirement are not offered on schedule builder and in fact are just gone without a trace and students are left with little to no explanation. If these steps are taken, I believe students such as myself will have a much easier time registering.