Lest it be said that all the Lariat does is complain about Baylor, today we would like to take some time to congratulate the university on what we see as an innovative and beneficial step — the registration wait-list.
For those unfamiliar with the system, it allows several groups of students to enter a wait-list for certain popular classes. This means that in the event that the class is full, students can be placed on a priority list on a first-come-first-serve basis. This democratizes the otherwise chaotic process of finding a place in overbooked classes.
Right now, this is a service available mostly to freshmen. What would be ideal is if this system was extended to all students.
It is understandable that the system is currently restricted to a small group of students. The wait-list has to be tested to make sure that all of the bugs are worked out of the system. The university is right to hold back on the full release so that the student body may be served best.
When the program is released, however, there are some things that the Lariat wishes the university to add when the wait-list is implemented in full.
The first is a priority system on the wait-list.
If, for some reason, a graduating senior is not able to register for a class through an oversight, technical glitch or other reason, he or she should be given priority over other students. Freshmen and sophomores can afford to wait a semester to register for a class, but upperclassmen do not have the luxury — especially for classes which are prerequisites.
Another necessary feature would be to allow professors to override the wait-lists. This would give them the same control that they have over their classes currently, and to modify the makeup of classes that require certain types of students. For example, if a class requires prior knowledge your average sophomore or freshman wouldn’t typically have, the professor should be able to allow students that are ready into the class ahead of those who may not be.
A third step would be to allow students to see where they are on the wait-list.
This would make sure that students wouldn’t be caught in a limbo waiting for two classes to let them know if they’re anywhere near to the front of the list. That will allow them to know which classes to give up on and when to find another class to fill that time slot.
We are confident that when the new system is implemented all of these suggestions will be taken into account, since they are mostly common sense. If they aren’t however, the Lariat would strongly encourage the university to make these changes in order to improve the system.
That, however, will not be seen until the wait-list system is fully implemented. We hope that this will be done quickly, and commend the university on its initiative and innovation.
