JACOB KONST/Arizona Daily Wildcat Pre-business sophomore David Heim takes to the floor of adjunct professor Christine Dykgraaf's Middle Eastern Humanities class in hopes of one day gaining a seat. Many students are in a crunch for getting the classes they need.

Students are still struggling to get into the classes they need even though the Legislature has stopped cutting the university budget, allowing departments to add more classes.

When registration began last semester, there were 5,598 courses offered, 62 more classes than the 5,536 courses offered in the fall.

Yet students still haven't been able to register for the courses they need.

Students who were unable to find a seat in Christine Dykgraaf's gen ed class yesterday sat in the aisles and stood around the perimeter of the room, hoping to add the class.

The scene in Dykgraaf's TRAD 101: Middle Eastern Humanities class is commonplace since the Legislature cut the university budget by more than $40 million from 2000 to 2002.

Dykgraaf, an adjunct professor for the Near Eastern studies department, said that many classes are so popular that professors are also struggling to accommodate students in classrooms filled to capacity and beyond.

David Cox, senior associate to the provost for curriculum and institutional budgeting, said that despite student complaints, some gen ed classes were still available in the days approaching the spring semester.

But students who were looking to complete their Tier One and Two gen ed requirements said they were having a hard time finding a spot in TRAD, INDV and NATS classes.

"It' really frustrating for us students who are supposed to follow a four-year plan (to graduate), and because of the lack of classes you can't really follow it," said Corianne Canton, a veterinary science freshman.

"I couldn't get into the bio class I needed," Canton said, adding that she might be forced to take a 400-level class that she is unprepared for in order to graduate on time.

Terry Thure, the assistant director for academic student affairs in the College of Fine Arts, said that while some students in the department have not been able to find classes in the past, priority registration has ensured that most majors in the college get into the classes they need.

"Most of our students have a full load, and those who took advantage of priority registration got more of the classes they wanted," Thure said.

Communication majors have also been able to get the classes they need to graduate through priority registration, said Chris Segrin, head of the communication department.

"Prerequisites protect seats for those in upper-division classes, but sadly, it comes at a price for nonmajors," Segrin said.

Some students were upset that seats were unavailable in many upper-level classes shortly after priority registration began late last year.

Anne Mead, an architecture junior, said that even though the School of Architecture reserves upper-level classes for its majors, she still had difficulty getting a seat in classes taught by other departments.

Thure said that the UA would like to create an ideal schedule for every student. But with the financial crisis the UA has faced in recent years and continued lack of funding, Thure said such a situation is unlikely in the near or distant future.