Real-Time Registration Eclipses MARS

Author: Daniel Phillips

No longer will Middlebury College students have to wait two to three weeks to find out if they have secured placement in a class. The College will switch registration programs from the Middlebury Automated Registration System (MARS) to BannerWeb beginning with November registration for Winter Term 2004 and spring term 2004. The new BannerWeb system is a real-time registration which differs from MARS in that students will now be able to tell instantly during their Web session whether or not they will be granted placement, explained Secretary of the College Eric Davis, who is overseeing the transition to the new registration system.

When students access BannerWeb for the first time, they will encounter their own registration "window" in which to build their schedules for spring and fall terms. The registrar will notify students by e-mail of the time they can register, which will be based on class standing. Upon activation, the windows stay open for the duration of the registration process, allowing students to freely add and drop courses until the web registration closes. Students can still drop classes after their BannerWeb sessions end, but doing so will require an add card along with the signature of the course instructor.

Another deviation from MARS is that students entering their second, third and fourth semesters at the College will now be required to enter an alternate PIN number, which will be given out during meetings with their advisors before the registration period begins. The PIN number will be the only way to access the online registration page. As Davis explained, students will be required to see their advisor before the possibility of study abroad in order to determine how studying outside of the College will fit into his/her undergraduate education. Although juniors and seniors will not have to enter the alternate PIN for registration, they are still encouraged to see their advisors before the BannerWeb sessions commence.

BannerWeb also provides students with the added feature of searching for courses within a possible variety of criteria they can impose. If an English major desperately needs a course to satisfy a DED requirement that meets on Tuesday and Thursday, the new system can immediately identify every possible option.

The new system will first be put to use during the spring term practice session lasting from Oct. 28 until Nov. 14. The purpose of this session, explained Davis, is so students can familiarize themselves with the system, but also to encourage students to check the enrollment restrictions of their desired courses so the appropriate faculty members can waive certain prerequisites or major restrictions.

Professors can waive course restrictions for students through the touch of a button on the Web interface.

Registrar and Assistant Dean of Enrollment Kathy Weiss noted, "Because the time to register is shorter, students need to find out in advance if they have time conflict issues, have the necessary prerequisites or if they need approvals." She added that the registrar's office would like to emphasize that "students will need to take advantage of their seniority-based registration windows in order to benefit from this new first-come first-served system." However, the administration strongly urges students to use this practice round to check restrictions because waivers must be granted before the actual registration process begins, otherwise classes are likely to fill up if students seek professors' permission the day of registration.

As usual, registration for Winter Term will last only three days, taking place from Nov. 5 through 7, and the individual registration windows will be assigned in the normal winter term order of priority offering sophomores first choice for registration, followed by first-years and then juniors and seniors. Spring term registration will begin the first week of Nov. 17 through 21, and students will register by seniority, with seniors in their final semester registering first, followed by first-semester seniors, juniors, sophomores and then first-years.

With one day assigned to each level of seniority, Weiss is relieved that "spring term registration will now be complete in five days instead of being a distraction from students' current coursework for over two weeks."

Weiss also pointed out that since registration is still a Web-based system, "it will continue to meet the registration needs of the students abroad."

Davis added that the time of registration windows opening was specifically chosen to accommodate abroad students while they are still awake. The windows will open at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, which is 12 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time for all students overseas.

Davis also noted that students will no longer have to go all the way to the field house to register for physical education classes.

The administration talked about the registration system switch last spring with the SGA, but Davis believes "it is now time for more general publicity about them for all students."

The College administration made the intial decision to adopt BannerWeb as the overall administration system three years ago.

The College started rolling out the modules with finances and budget, followed by human resources and then admissions this past spring, leaving registration for the next module to come online. Davis said that the administration decided in the fall of 2002 that the first registration under the BannerWeb system would begin in Nov. 2003 for Winter Term of 2004.

"There will be plenty of information out there," claimed Davis, as he elaborated that e-mails, table tents, Web-pages and forums for Junior Counselors (JCs) are all part of the plan.

To avoid problems during registration, the administration recommends that students read all correspondence from the registrar's office, declare majors before the October deadline and verify their class standing, as it determines the seniority-based registration window, alternate PIN assignment and room draw.