As of Jan. 30, you can no longer drop a class without it appearing on your transcript. That means, as far as the University of Michigan is concerned, that class schedule you chose way back in November is going to leave a mark. But the impact of our courses goes far beyond academic records. The classes we choose and the schedules we create have a major effect on the people we interact with and the rhythm of our weeks. Our daily lives, and largely our college experience, are dependent on the process of choosing these classes. Yet, we barely ever stop to consider if the current registration process is fair, beneficial or efficient.
In the waning days of the fall semester, I found myself anxiously awaiting my registration date. I had scoured the LSA Course Guide for hours, traversed the labyrinth that is Wolverine Access and managed to build a schedule on the Atlas Schedule Builder that miraculously contained a three-day weekend. However, when the time finally came for me to register, this dream schedule quickly faded from my computer screen. Half my desired classes were full and I was forced back onto the endless websites we depend on during registration season. I eventually crafted a schedule I felt comfortable with — albeit without the three-day weekend — but I couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied with the convoluted process I had just endured.
Most glaringly, the infrastructure behind our class registration system is far too disjointed and intricate. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed while navigating the endless array of platforms the University has compiled to supposedly make registration easier. Students must flip-flop between the course guide, Atlas, Wolverine Access and department websites, each of which contains a staggering amount of information.
When considered individually, the breadth and depth of these resources appear to offer significant benefits to the student body during the course selection process. But students don’t have all the time in the world to scour these sites. It’s crucial to consider the specific timeframe in which students are engaging with these websites to craft their schedules.
November is a month plagued by midterms, papers, problem sets and readings. Students are still wrestling with the woes of the first semester; yet, the University expects us to start planning out next semester’s classes. Adding the stress of class registration to this already stressful period only makes it harder for students to traverse the ocean of class information and resources that can be found on the University websites.
Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find any students complaining about the month registration starts. Their complaints instead tend to revolve around the registration date they’re assigned. In my view, these issues are simply two sides of the same coin, ultimately leading us to a pivotal question: Who really benefits from this system?
To answer this, we can look at how enrollment dates are determined. According to the Office of the Registrar, students are assigned to a certain registration block based on their Credit Toward Program and in-progress credits. That means you add up all the credits you’ve already earned and add on how many you’re taking this term. Registration times are then assigned from first block to last block.
As it stands now, students who are further along in their academic programs, specifically upperclassmen, are the ones who take priority during class registration. I can recognize the importance of prioritizing these individuals who pay increased tuition after they reach 55 credits and who are under more stress to find the classes they need to graduate on time. But we shouldn’t pit upperclassmen who want to complete their academic discipline against underclassmen who are trying to figure out their academic discipline. These two student groups have different educational needs and desires, and we shouldn’t simply be helping one by hindering the other.
This current method inevitably favors students who have already figured out their academic trajectory and who are less in need of varied course exploration. If you’re an underclassmen or someone questioning your chosen area of study, sorry; you’re at a disadvantage. You might spend hours combing through campus websites to plan a diverse schedule, only to discover that the new areas of study you’re interested in are full by the time you go to register. When students are most in need of academic exploration, our class registration system limits their ability to explore.
What we need is a class registration system that works for all students, not just some — a system that guarantees equity and easy accessibility to the student body. We can start by combining Wolverine Access, Atlas and the LSA Course Guide into a singular U-M registration platform. By consolidating these resources into a revamped interface, the University can guarantee easier access to all students, whether they’re looking for a completely new discipline or have already chosen a major.
Furthermore, the time when students are selecting courses also needs amending. It might be better for registration dates to occur over Winter Break rather than during the fall semester so that students can carefully select their courses and thoroughly examine campus resources at a time free from the pressures of college work.
Lastly, upperclassmen securing classes essential for their majors and underclassmen exploring new areas of study need not be mutually exclusive occurrences. The University should implement an enrollment date process that takes into account the individual needs of the student body. This might mean reserving a certain portion of seats in different classes for those students who have later registration dates, similar to the University’s policy for students in specific programs. Or, it might mean offering more unique advising opportunities to students looking to diversify their schedules.
Regardless of what the University comes up with to combat these issues, the timescale in which change will happen can be a point of contention. Traversing the bureaucracy of the University administration can prove daunting, particularly when there are probably many in the administration who see improving this longstanding system as unnecessary or impossible. Granted, the University has been doing class registration this way for years, and to them it might seem like they’ve constructed the best possible system. Platforms like the course guide or Atlas do provide a ton of great information and resources to help students select their courses. And the University does offer advising to help students navigate the daunting process, but even here they fall short.
I recently polled 15 university students from three different campus colleges to see whether or not they meet with advisors before selecting their classes. Of the students I polled, only four said they meet with advisors prior to picking courses, and the rest said they either never do, or only do it on occasion. This isn’t to discredit the hard work of our campus advisors, but it does illustrate the need for more outreach and easier accessibility to campus resources. Our advising opportunities, like the course guide and schedule builder, are good enough to get the job done; but with the right amendments, the class registration process can finally be what U-M students deserve.
Max Feldman is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at maxfeld@umich.edu.