Brianna Wallen – General Reporter
Monday is famously the most dreaded day of the week. For freshmen at the university, this past Monday was no different if not worse. On Nov. 13, first-year students registered for classes for their spring semester.
Anxiety, panic and frustration were common feelings for freshmen that day. Due to being the last class to select classes, their options were scarce.
Nursing major Zoie Matava, a freshman, said that she encountered problems during the registration process.
“It was awful. The system kept crashing, and all the classes were filling up,” Matava said.
The registration time for the freshman class was divided into three sections based on the number of credits students entered the university with. Those with 20 or more credits had it the best of all the freshmen, as their time opened at 8 a.m.
First year students with 10 or more earned credits had access to registration at 10:00 a.m., and those with no earned credits registered at noon. Despite the various sections, with limited open seats, the remaining first-years competed for classes.
Health science major Aliyah Golding, a freshman, said that she was competing with nursing majors for her desired classes.
“Biology 200 kept filling up fast, so I had to switch to Biology 102 to fulfill my health services requirement,” Golding said.
Especially with required classes, many health science and nursing majors fought for the little quantity of seats that remained.
“A lot of people needed that BIO class, so they should have had more seats for people that didn’t get it in the fall semester. It puts people behind to get their requirements,” Golding said.
In addition to rivalry for classes, students faced another drawback with the system failing. Computer science major Leanne Pedroso, a freshman, said that despite being in Connecticut Hall, which has strong Wi-Fi, the system had major mishaps.
“It loaded the first time for two minutes and said that I didn’t get my classes. Then it reloaded for 20 minutes, and I went back to Banner Student, and it said that I have all my classes,” Pedroso said.
With high stakes to get desired classes and an overwhelming number of students trying to register at the same time, it was a recipe for disaster.
Matava, who also dealt with Banner Student failing, said that the university needs to create a better alternative when registering for classes to avoid these issues.
“They should find a better way so that not everyone is on there at once,” Matava said.
Due to the many challenges and setbacks that these students endured, there was a resource available to help freshmen. The First-Year Experience Office welcomed first-year students to register for their classes at their center to be offered individualized support.
Communication disorders major Ashley Donahue, a freshman, visited the office when she registered for classes.
“They were very understanding. They helped to calm down my jitters and let me know what classes worked best for me,” Donahue said.
Despite the strenuous process of registering for classes, these new owls are excited to glide into the spring semester with their new classes. Nursing major Madeline Elmo, a freshman, said that her new schedule has classes that are heavily associated with her major.
“I’m ready for the spring semester because there’s more nursing driven classes, and I’m more interested in that,” Elmo said.
