Is the registration process at Marymount fair?

By: Jeffrey Aguilar

Photos: Pixabay

The question everyone asks themselves during each registration process is how does this work? How did Marymount administrators come up with this idea? Many believe that it is not fair while others love the idea that they get to register before everyone.

Entering college has a huge impact on you and the rest of your life. There are lots of positive and negative things along the way, but most people only focus on the positive as the negatives get overshadowed by the good things occurring. The main, if not the most important, negative impact college may have for you is an increase in stress levels.

In a study conducted by psychologist Cindy Liu, she found that 3 out of 4 college students are stressed out; and 1 out of 5 had some thought of suicide. Believe it or not, students begin to feel the stress as they are registering for classes. Here’s why.

Marymount University follows a system where there are different dates for different people to register for classes depending on different criteria met. This strategy eliminates the possibility of all students attending Marymount registering for classes at the same time.

The different criteria that are considered when deciding when you will register for courses are: if you are an Honors student or an athlete you get to register before everyone else; and then the rest ranks from grade level, seniors to freshmen.

The question everyone asks themselves during each registration process is how does this work? How did Marymount administrators come up with this idea? Many believe that it is not fair while others love the idea that they get to register before everyone.

Also, it benefits them by not having to deal with the stress of the registration process.

Marymount junior, DeAndre’ Robinson, defines the registration as “hell” in one word. Robinson says that every year so far she’s hoped to not face the same issues during registration time but it fails every time.

“Something must be done, the website can’t be possibly crashing only during registration week,” Robinson said. “We are already getting the ‘leftover’ classes so the least Marymount should do is improve their Wi-Fi the day registration falls on.”

Other students, such as commuters, have also said that their site seems to crash when they are registering from home. This means that the problem may not be just the Wi-Fi but also the website itself.

Robinson continued talking about how she doesn’t agree with Marymount’s registration process. She believes that neither the Honor students, athletes, nor any other group of students should be able to register before the other no matter what circumstance.

She concluded with everyone having priorities and responsibilities in life that need taking care of, so everyone should be able to complete the registration of classes in an equal manner.

According to a study done by the Teaching and Learning Program at Villanova University, colleges and universities around the nation have begun to follow a procedure of allowing specific students such as athletes to register early for a number of reasons.

Reasons behind this include difficulty scheduling courses that do not conflict with practices/games, maintaining a path for majors/minors with limited availability and allowing extensive time to work on assignments before and after sporting activities.

Randy Weinstein, associate provost for TLP at Villanova, said it’s a great way to test out the athletes, and see if it can bring a bigger and positive impact to their student-athlete life.

What do athletes think about being given priority when it comes to registration?

Clare McNulty, a shooting guard for Marymount’s basketball team until she got severely injured, was asked to give her opinion in regards to how she felt about the privilege of getting her classes approved first.

“I love it,” McNulty said. She thinks it wouldn’t be possible to register for classes with everyone else and attend all the practices and games she has without one conflicting with the other or the classes being too full.

Adding on to what she previously said, athletes also wouldn’t be able to graduate on time if this option wasn’t in place. McNulty’s feelings support the study done by the TLP in order to make life easier for student athletes.

When asked if she thought it was fair for only athletes and Honor students to receive this special treatment, McNulty answered, “Yes it is totally fair because we have to make time for both our sport and academics whereas others only need to focus on their school work.”

When asked about commuter students getting the chance to register early and how she would feel about that, she responded by saying that there shouldn’t be a need to let them sign up early because if they were to register on time, they should be able to get all the classes they need.

This is where the controversy comes into play because a commuter student or just an ordinary college student that isn’t an athlete or in the Honors program can argue that they should also do the same.

Students who are not athletes and have to wait their chance to sign up for classes were also asked about their feelings and what they thought about the registration process here at Marymount.

Valerie Ernest, a double major in Fashion Merchandising and Design firmly believes that it is unjust for athletes and Honor students to be privileged just for who they are and what they do.

When asked about how she would feel if other groups of people were able to register early, for example, commuter students, she didn’t support the idea. Robinson also was opposed to the idea of having commuters register before everyone else.

“Everyone is equal and nobody should be treated differently, therefore, we should register in an equal manner.”

So if nobody agrees to a specific order or equal fairness in the way that Marymount does their registration process, what are some ways it could be improved for students?

Ernest believes the best way is to keep it the way it is, but without giving priority to  athletes and Honor students. In other words, base it on grade level from seniors to freshmen.

On the other hand, Robinson said, “No group should be privileged to register early period!”

McNulty said there should be a variety of classes offered at different times on different days to avoid schedule conflicts.

A study by Creatix Campus was done to give suggestions to colleges and universities on how to ensure that they have the best possible course registration for their students. One recommendation was to make sure the website works well on the day of registration and if possible, have a team ready for support just in case anything goes wrong.

Based on the responses received, this is one thing Marymount is lacking.

Overall, there are mixed feelings about the registration process at Marymount. Although there is support for keeping athletes and Honors students’ registration before everybody else’s, there is also the support for a change in the process by making it more fair to other students and not only favoring the two prioritized groups.