Beginning this fall, students will be immediately indebted to the University for all classes they register and will receive increased fees for registering late to prevent students from scheduling courses they do not plan to complete.Allayne Barrilleaux, assistant vice president for academic affairs, said the new scheduling policy will eliminate flushing and activating from the registration process by charging students for the courses they register immediately upon scheduling. Fees must be paid by the last business day before classes begin or students will be charged a $100 late fee. Also, students will be charged a $100 fee for registering after the last business day before the semester begins.
“We’re trying to get them to be more proactive about scheduling,” Barrilleaux said. “We hope it will make students more committed to their choices.”
The current scheduling policy allows students to enroll in classes they do not plan to complete so they can drop classes during the semester while remaining full-time students. Barrilleaux said she hopes the new process with prevent courses from being artificially filled so students who need certain classes can get in and the University does not have to spend money to provide extra classes students do not need.
“With the budget so tight, we can’t afford resources to reserve places for them if they decide not to come,” Barrilleaux said.
Barrilleaux compared the new policy to the way hotels charge customers for reserving rooms they do not use. “It’s to make sure you honor that commitment,” she said.
Some universities limit the number of times a student can drop courses, but Barrilleaux said Nicholls’ administration does not want to resort to such a policy. “We don’t really want to go there because we know a lot of students struggle with classes or have work,” she said.
Barrilleaux said the transition to the new policy might seem harsh to students who have experienced the current system, but it will benefit new students. “After four years, students won’t ever have known we did anything differently.”
Another change in the scheduling process for the fall semester is the transition from ICAN to the Banner system. Kelly Rodrigue, University registrar, said students will not see much difference between the two systems while scheduling.
“The biggest difference is the more robust searching mechanism,” Rodrigue said.
Scheduling for summer began this week, and scheduling for fall will begin next week, but the two took place simultaneously prior to this year. Rodrigue said the change is because the University is in the process of transferring students from ICAN to Banner.
“Come August, we’ll be purely on Banner,” Rodrigue said.
