Monday, April 1 was the first day that the new rules about priority registration impacted the course scheduling process at Stevens. Or at least, it was supposed to be.
Slightly over one month ago, Provost Christophe Pierre and Interim Vice Provost Anthony Barrese, sent out an email to all undergraduates titled “Changes in Priority Registration for Undergraduate Students.” In it, they redefined which groups of undergraduates were to receive priority registration, the privilege of registering as soon as the registration period opens regardless of class year. The email stated that, going forward, the only groups that were to receive this privilege were “Select disabled students identified by the Director of the Office of Disability Services; Athletes in season identified by the Athletic Director; ROTC students; and First-year Pinnacle Scholars students, in the spring semester only.”
Despite the changes, when freshman Senator E.J. Hannah woke up on Monday morning, a friend who should have been removed from the priority pool said he had been able to schedule anyway. “I knew something was up, because [they were] one of the groups that lost priority from the Provost’s announcement. I quickly logged into myStevens and compiled a list of my course codes. Sure enough, after 20 minutes of loading, I had been registered for all of my desired classes without an issue,” Hannah said. Both Hannah and his friend said they had been jokingly encouraged to try and schedule on Monday regardless by junior Mark Krupinski. Krupinski said he thought they may be able to schedule anyway since “I’ve heard of students keeping priority registration after leaving a role that gives someone priority registration. I told E.J. that it was worth a shot. Worst thing that happens is you wake up early.” E.J.’s friend, who chose to stay anonymous, echoed that sentiment: “I figured that since everything in the Registrar’s Office is done so inefficiently, with paper, that they wouldn’t be able to update the system in time to implement the new changes. I have had previous frustrations with the office and I thought (correctly) I would use it to my advantage.”
After speaking to students from each of the affected groups, The Stute was able to confirm that the error affected virtually everyone who was supposed to lose priority status. There was a small handful of students who did lose early registration as was planned, but the vast majority of SGA officials, Honor Board members, resident assistants, and out-of-season athletes were still able to schedule on Monday morning. When asked what prevented the changes from taking effect, the Office of the Provost said, “The Registrar’s Office checked to see if something went wrong in the system setup. Unfortunately, an error in the registration permissions update program within the Student Information System was found. This explains why some individuals still received priority registration. The Registrar’s Office is setting up a corrective action plan to resolve this for the future.”
Even though priority was not removed from the RA’s, SGA officials, Honor Board Members, and athletes who had it last semester, it was also not granted to new members of these groups. For example, individuals who were elected to the Senate for the first time this semester did not receive the privilege.
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