By Joshua Knopp/managing editor
Soon, the unprepared student won’t be a student at all.
Beginning with registration for the summer semester, prospective TCC students who don’t pay when they register will be dropped daily from those courses instead of having a two-week drop period. Additionally, late registration will no longer be offered.
“As part of the Achieving the Dream initiative and as we looked at some factors that contribute to students’ lack of success in some classes, what we found is that students who register late for a semester are among those who have the highest dropout and failure rate,” said David Wells, vice chancellor of academic affairs. “The elimination of late registration was something that was requested by the campus presidents in order to support student success.”
Wells said the new registration process would be just like the old one, but after they register, students who haven’t paid or initiated a payment agreement will be dropped on a daily basis instead of a bi-monthly basis.
“When the student registers, and they don’t have the ready cash, they sign a document with student services that indicates that they will pay,” Wells said on payment agreements.
These changes aren’t coming without due diligence on TCC’s part. A registration committee was established early last semester to look into the potential effects of the campus presidents’ proposed changes.
“The committee came into being early last summer,” said Suzanne Carter, director of academic support services and head of the registration committee. “Over time, as we started looking at the different issues, different departments got involved.”
The committee ended up with a representative from every office that had a say in the registration process, Carter said. The first several meetings on identified problems in the registration process, and then the committee began to propose and research solutions to those problems. These solutions are about to be implemented.
“This truly is a process that has had an enormous amount of input,” Carter said.
Simply streamlining registration won’t solve every problem that the committee has identified, however. Starting in the fall 2011 semester, the registration window will be gradually reduced each semester ending in fall 2012. Also, business services associate director Truitt Leake said a priority registration system will be implemented as part of the process.
“In an ideal world, if you’re enrolled and you’re going to complete, we want to accommodate you for the next semester,” Leake said.
“This is a process. It is not one thing.”
Student Rodrigo Agudelo’s reaction to the registration changes was less than positive.
“Sometimes stuff happens. You change your job. You’ve got an emergency,” said Agudelo, who is full-time at both school and work. “And with the drop period, you can just let them drop and register for different classes. I think it’s a mistake.”
Phuong Dam disagreed. She is looking forward to other students not being able to hold seats during registration for classes they eventually won’t be in.
“At the end of registration day, [if] I don’t pay for my school fee, I will be dropped out, and I have to register again. The problem is that the classes that I want to take are full,” she said. “I think it’s a good solution.”
Students should pay attention to these changes, Leake said, not just because the changes will affect their education but also because they are made with the students in mind.
“It will really help a lot of students,” Leake said. “If you’re prepared, it’s a cut-and-dried situation. If you’re unprepared, you’re going to have to get prepared.”
