New Automated Registration Waitlist
Benedetto Maniscalco | November 17, 2022
The Warren Wilson College (WWC) registrar instituted a new automated waitlisting system for the spring 2023 registration period. They announced this change to the students in an email on Nov. 2, 2022.
Brooke Millsaps, the Dean of Academic Administration and College Registrar at WWC, originally worked within the advising staff and brought in knowledge of student experiences to influence how she implemented this new system.
“The previous waitlisting process was a headache for students, staff, for the registrar's office — it was all manual,” Millsaps said.
Manual Waitlisting meant that movement of students from waitlists to classes would not happen until closer to the start of the semester.
“We wouldn't even start to look at waitlists until December at the earliest,” Millsaps said. “The waitlist movement was pretty compressed into a few weeks prior to classes.”
The long waiting period meant that spots that opened up on waitlists could be taken by any student who saw the opening. Jamie Ridenhour, a professor in the English department, mentioned how this added to the stress of students and staff.
“If I didn't know someone dropped, somebody else would come along who wasn't on the waitlist and see it was open and sign up and jump the whole waitlist and get in,” Ridenhour said. “So it meant that I had to be really watching almost every day.”
“There's no reason they shouldn’t have you know; they saw it was open and signed up for it.,” Ridenhour said.
Now students are sent an email when they are moved off of the waitlist and they have 48 hours to confirm that they want to take that seat in a class.
“The second that person drops, the system sends an email to the other student, you have 48 hours to decide if you want it,” Millsaps said. “The quickness of it still relies on students checking email, but I think students have more control.”
With the new automation, students in this position are already being moved from the waitlist into classes.
“I'm very excited that we are already moving students off the waitlist into courses,” Millsaps said. “Students are getting a more accurate picture of their schedule earlier on, which then opens up the appropriate seats in different places earlier on, which gives a better opportunity for our incoming students that will start advising in December.”
Students not used to the system may need a reminder to keep up with this process as it will be moving much quicker.
“If students put themselves on a waitlist, they have got to check email,” Millsaps said. “If they don't check email, there's a chance within 48 hours they're going to be dropped from the class.”
Students have pointed to other ways that this system could be better. Marren Dougherty, a freshman on the Student Activities Crew, shared their perspective.
“Knowing if [I’m] the first or second one, there's a higher chance of me getting into this class, therefore, I don't need to be super set on like finding a whole other course to make up for it,” Dougherty said.
Another point that Dougherty made was that being on waitlists still fills students’ schedule availability.
“I should have been more prepared, first of all, but a lot of the classes that I then needed to sign up for were at the same time slot as all the ones on [my] waitlist,” Dougherty said. “You have to get your integrated advising coach to get you into that class, otherwise, it won't let you put it on.”
Advisors are typically on call so to speak during the time students start registering.
Dougherty mentioned that given the speed of students signing up for classes, an advisor’s response may not be quick enough.
“There's a chance that within that time period of me emailing (my advisor), someone could take that position and that class could fill up,” Dougherty said. “The whole thing is just kind of frustrating.”
Millsaps wants to hear critiques and concerns about the registration process from students, and she says that bringing these concerns to one of your advisors is the best way to go about it.
“If you have concerns with your student record or the way registration is working or something that feels like a hurdle, raising it with your advisor — whether it be your IAC or your major advisor — is the best way to do it,” Millsaps said.
Advisors will relay that sort of information to Millsaps and she is actively trying to find ways to change anything that can be made better in the advising process.
“That kind of stuff trickles up to me and then I can be thinking about is there a way that we can help kind of solve that makes it better for everyone,” Millsaps said.