Summer registration will take place two weeks earlier this spring than it has in the past, while students registering for the fall semester will have a little longer wait. In addition, the number of enrollment windows will be reduced to three from five.
The decrease in the number of enrollment windows comes after a review of the level of technical support that registration requires and problems with the existing procedure. A committee chaired by University Registrar Bruce Cunningham recommended the changes in order to lessen pressure on faculty advisers. Because the system requires students to enter PINs before they can register, students and advisers were being forced to have their advising sessions early to exchange information, as many summer classes fill up on the first few days of registration.
“Pre-major advisers wanted to be deliberate, careful and thoughtful in terms of advising for fall,” said Paula Gilbert, assistant dean and director of continuing education and University summer session.
With the changes, summer registration will start before fall registration and before PINs are issued. The window will close at the beginning of spring break and PINs will be issued then. This will allow students to register for summer classes without a PIN and meet with their advisers later, during the drop/add period. Because PINs are not term-specific, the system cannot require a PIN for one term and not the other.
The earlier start time also lets summer session officials see enrollment patterns earlier. This gives officials the benefit of more time to make necessary adjustments.
While summer registration is moving up to avert the need for PINs, fall registration will be moved back a week. Fall 2005 registration will begin April 6 for graduate and professional students and April 7 for undergraduates, and freshmen will register in July. This timing will reduce the number of schedule changes and give faculty longer to get organized.
“It gives departments a little more time to get their schedules together,” Cunningham noted.
The changes streamline the registration process by reducing the number of windows.
“We wanted to see if we could shrink the time frame because we heard from students that it seemed like an inordinate amount of time,” Cunningham said.
He added that no student will be disadvantaged by the changes. Those in line for the first window will still receive it, and all seniors will still register in one window. Some students will benefit, however. For instance, a student with the third window last fall will be in the first window this spring.
Gilbert noted that with earlier registration students make their plans sooner and sometimes forget to correct their schedules, however she does not expect this to be a big problem at the University.
“Duke students are generally very responsible with registration and remember to go back and change it if their plans change,” Gilbert said.
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