Two weeks ago, the Office of the Provost reinstated priority status for students currently in the Pinnacle Scholars program. This reinstatement comes after the Provost’s Office had stripped priority status from many groups on campus, including those in the Pinnacle program, back in late February.
More than a month ago, on February 27th, the Office of the Provost sent an email informing all undergraduate students about changes in priority registration for classes. As stated in the email, they had “reviewed priority registration policies and compared them against best practices of other universities, including comparative schools.” At the time, the Office of the Provost professed that this decision was in response to student concerns, notably, a Letter to the Editor published in the November 2018 issue of The Stute, and an effort to reduce the number of students in eligible groups by 50 percent.
On March 22nd, however, another email was sent out by Senior Coordinator, Stephanie Riker, of Office of Academics only to students in Pinnacle Scholars program alerting them about the reinstatement of priority registration. Since its inception, the Pinnacle Scholars Program, an invitation-only program for high-achieving Stevens’ applicants, has offered its constituents priority registration.
Associate Provost Cindy Chin and Anthony Barrese, Interim Vice Provost of Academics, explained that the reasoning behind affording priority to Pinnacle Scholars is to allow them to register for higher-level course as many of them enter Stevens with a number of AP credits. They added that the decision to reinstate Pinnacle Scholars’ priority registration was due to the fact that Pinnacle Scholars students felt that they had been misinformed during the application process.
Although not heavily publicized, on the program’s website, priority registration is one of many benefits afforded to Stevens’ Pinnacle Scholars. “Approximately 200 Pinnacle and Clark scholars will continue to receive priority registration this year and another 100 students next year,” said Chin. Going forward, Pinnacle and Clark Scholars students will only be offered priority registration in the spring semester of their first year.
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