Students to Register for Fall 2016 in Mid-June

BY HEBA FOUAD
@HEBAMSALAH

The standard course registration cycle for fall 2016 for all continuing students has shifted from May to June.

According to the new system this year, students will register for courses between June 13 and June 23, thereby taking into account their spring semester grades.

Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives Ahmed Tolba explained that the old cycle for declaration and registration resulted in “a lost semester”: undeclared students finished their major course requirements during the Spring semester, but, since declaration took place the following October, they were forced to register for core curriculum courses or electives while they waited.

“We are going to move the registration from May to June and bring back the declaration period from October to June,” said Tolba, “students will therefore declare their major within the first ten days of June after their grades have been posted.”

Tolba told The Caravan that the change in declaration and registration timings was based on students’ concerns from a survey organized by the Student Union (SU) and an analysis of the departments’ handling of students’ issues.

SU Academic Representation Chair Salma Tarek told The Caravan that they have been working on this initiative with Tolba from the beginning of this academic year.

“We helped with offering the students’ survey and coordination with departments, we at the end were representing the student’s side for this initiative.”

Tolba also said that, in addition to the SU, the office of the Provost worked with the student senate and AUC Peer Advising Leader [PAL] program to develop this system.

“We found that a large percentage of the petitions are due to students trying to register for major courses while they are undeclared, many of whom have completed their requirements and are ready for declaration” Tolba said.

Paul Revere, the university Registrar, told The Caravan that this new cycle is more helpful to the students to make sure they register for the right courses after knowing their grades.

“In order to be proactive we decided to wait for all the major declarations that happen, and to help with not having a change around your schedule that much and also to reduce the number of petitions requested by students,” Revere said.

“The only difference it makes is the issue of holds, but we are going to get reports on all holds available and make sure to communicate to all students several times to clear their holds before the Fall semester is over,” said Tolba.

The new registration period would be running during the summer session, so all departments would be operating efficiently as normal.

Tolba added that they are working on an online waiting list for all departments that will be operating starting June 23.

“We will be making sure that all departments are accommodating these requests because generally, going to the department and filing a petition physically is strange,” he said.

This new project will be implemented in the following two semesters and an analysis of the feedback from the students would be put into consideration.

A university open forum on April 7 will focus on explaining the new system and addressing students’ concerns.

Editor’s note: A number of students have approached The Caravan to inquire whether the above story is an April Fool’s hoax. It is not.