By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
More classes will be opened up to meet the demands
Seniors in the UA Eller College of Business and Public Administration may not be able to register into the classes they need to graduate next semester.
Because of a new system that allows cohorts - juniors with advanced standing - to register before seniors, classes vital to a senior's graduation may not be open.
The cohort program, in its first semester, registers its members through the college before seniors have had the opportunity to register.
"I can't get into my core classes right now," said Scott Berren, a finance junior who plans to graduate in December 2001. "They are being reserved for students that are graduating after I am graduating."
Some seniors are angry and argue that the cohort program prevents them from enrolling in upper-division prerequisite classes - ultimately delaying their graduation date.
The cohort program registers junior students with advanced standing without requiring them to go through the Registration System Via Phone.
"That program doesn't affect anybody else," said Pamela Perry, associate dean for undergraduate programs in the business college, about the impact the new program will have on senior students.
The cohort program is a new enrollment-management model that would guarantee the courses and make the sequence logical, Perry said.
"Students begin a relationship with their peers and faculty members," she said.
About 500 advanced-standing students, most of them juniors who will graduate in May 2002, are enrolled in the program this semester.
However, the business college has too much demand and not enough supply, Perry said.
The lack of enough auditoriums, classrooms and instructors could make enrollment even more difficult for some students next semester.
On Saturday - the first day of registration for senior students - two additional lectures in Management and Information Systems 373, Basic Operations Management, will be opened. Students who signed up for waiting lists will be distributed into classes.
"We'll take leftover seats, if there are any," Berren said. "It's not right and disrespectful for students paying and wanting to graduate in timely manner."
There are about 5,000 students in the business college, 900 of which are seniors who could graduate in May 2001.
"In some ways, we are guinea pigs for this program," said Karen Fox, MIS senior.
The business college changed the registration system to provide efficiency and to meet the demands of some students, Perry said.
The new program will allow the college to know how many students there are and to offer those courses that are most demanded.
"It takes away all the guess work," she said.
The university's system, RSVP, was difficult to manage and "it was luck of the draw with no coordination," Perry said.
"If you don't know what the demand is, you don't know what courses to offer," she said.
Sara Hesch, a junior student who is in the cohort program, said the opportunity to automatically enter courses guarantees her a spot in her classes.
"With this way, you don't have to worry because the class is full," Hesch said.
