For the past two years, a student government white paper initiative regarding the scheduling of classes has blossomed into a legitimate administrative proposal.
Ken Kirkpatrick, registrar and associate dean of students has been working with the Student Senate and the Management of Academic Operations committee (MAO) to pioneer a new course registration system.
The current system has produced student grumblings.
Junior Traci Balz, a sociology major, has been trying to get into a criminology course since the second semester of her freshman year to fulfill her "W" competency. Despite her persistent meetings with the professor teaching the course and her priority as a major, Balz hasn't been able to secure a spot in the class.
"It's frustrating when you can't get into a course in your major, especially when it also fulfils a graduation requirement and you request it semester after semester," Balz said. "I just don't understand why I haven't gotten into a "W" by now, I know that I've submitted my requests correctly."
As a result, Balz was forced to petition to delay her "W" certification in order to avoid automatic academic probation.
The first draft identified DePauw's current process of class scheduling as a main concern for students.
Mark Fadel, student body vice president and MAO student representative heading the project, hopes the new system will give students more control.
"Right now you fill a bunch of numbers into a grid and you have no idea how [your course schedule] is generated," Fadel said. "The whole goal of the plan is for class scheduling to be much more transparent in the student's mind."
Senior Jimmy Kirkpatrick has been working with the Student Senate and MAO to pioneer a new course registration system. The new system is a two-phase process incorporating elements of online direct enrollment while still giving students the chance to talk with their advisors, according to Kirkpatrick.
The first phase will be an advising phase. Students will be able to pick classes they have an interest in and the system reserves a spot for them.
Kirkpatrick describes it as, "eBay where you're watching items, which allows us to check eligibility."
Fadel describes it further as an online "shopping cart" for classes where you see the whole class schedule in one document and from there you choose the ones you want to "watch." Your name fills up a queue for the course and holds your spot. Next you bring the list of courses you are "watching" to your advisor where you are able to make decisions about adding, dropping or changing any of them.
This way you have a reserved spot in the classes you ultimately want to take before enrolling becomes live.
The second phase is physical enrollment.
At a set time, groups of students will begin enrolling in courses while the online system double checks that there are no scheduling conflicts in a student's course selections.
April is the earliest completion date for this project if students embrace the proposal, according to Kirkpatrick. The proposal's senate committee met last week about the initiative and is pushing for an open forum that will inform students about the proposed new system.
"This is an important issue so student government is gathering student input as much as possible," Fadel said.
During this forum, student government has asked Kirkpatrick to describe the plan and be able to answer questions asked by students, including those concerning the use of special permission codes.
Fadel remains optimistic about the road ahead.
"I think this is the perfect opportunity for students to give their input for changes that all students will directly see," Fadel said.