Today: Mar 29, 2024

Banner Web crash delays registration for seniors

Jackson VolenecReporter

Students are beginning to register for the upcoming spring semester of 2020, and the Registrar’s Office has added a waitlist feature to make the process easier for people on campus.

Banner Web Registration now allows students to add themselves to waitlists for certain available classes if their desired course is full. If a seat opens later, the student first in queue on the waitlist gets an opportunity to secure their spot in the class.

“I think that the waitlist is a really good idea, and it will give students a fair shot of getting a class they might not have had the chance to sign up for if someone leaves. I think that’s really cool,” said journalism major Edward Rudman, a junior.

This waitlist feature is not available for all classes, however, as only certain majors have been selected for this mechanic currently. However, it will be available to more classes and majors in the future as the waitlist becomes utilized by the different academic departments.

“I know about the waitlist, but I don’t even have any classes I want that offers it, so it’s kind of not helpful for me right now,” said English major Ava Carrano, a junior. “I hope I’ll be able to get some use out of it in the future, though.”

The Registrar’s Office workers have said that there have been less problems with students registering for classes, as there has been clear communication to students when they are to sign up for their classes. The main problem now, is if students are aware of what their class standings are for registration.

There has been some confusion in the past for students who are on the border of class standings as far as credits go, and it is not exactly clear on what grade some students are. For registration purposes, it calculates all the credits you have earned in the past as well as the credits you are earning in the current semester.

“If a student were to have, say, 57 credits earned, you are not a sophomore when registering, you would be a junior. That’s because it adds your 15 credits or whatever you have from this semester, which technically makes you a junior,” said Monica Raffone, an associate registrar on campus.

“It is very important that students are aware of that so they can register for classes as soon as possible.”

The difference between those two days for juniors and sophomores can make a significant impact on the availability of the classes they are picking.

There are often website crashes during the registration process on campus, as it is a significantly higher load on the servers compared to normal as thousands of students are all refreshing a page. The crashes have continued into this semester, as seniors have already experienced problems accessing the site when it is time to select their courses.

“I think volume issues continue to be a problem, but that is more of a technological problem. It’s like, ‘Can the site handle 2,000 people at once logging on?’ That’s on IT,” said Raffone.

In order to try and regulate the crashes, the registration process opens at 6 a.m. and shuts down all other online processes on campus. It is done early in the morning because that is when the least amount of people is anticipated to need any online campus services.

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