Alina Popov
After 18 months of broad consultations and discussions, the Pierce College administration decided to eliminate waiting lists from the class-registration process beginning in the spring.
“The issue with waiting lists is one that sets off the convenience of getting students lined up in preparation for being accepted to classes that (are already) full against the problems of the registration system that we have,” said Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, vice president of academic affairs.
Pierce uses the Los Angeles Community College District’s Student Information System, a unified system comprising nine colleges and around 150,000 students.
The system, written in an outdated programming language named Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), doesn’t give control of waiting lists, resulting in many empty seats. An update is unlikely because the system would be difficult and costly to modify.
The district is currently exploring the options for a new system, but the project will take a long time because of the size and cost of the upgrade, as well as testing to ensure a smooth transition.
Currently, if a section has a waiting list, classes are closed once they fill up and students are added to the waiting list until it reaches its limit. The class will not reopen when students drop it, which restricts students from registering for the open seats.
“At the beginning of the semester we have thousands of seats that have been held back by the registration system, which should have become available again to students to register,” Abu-Ghazaleh said. “We have an artificial and unnecessary system that locks students out of seats that we actually want them to register in.”
The admissions office enrolls around 3,000 students between the first day of school and the last day to add classes, accounting for 15 to 20 percent of the total semester enrollment.
Without waiting lists, as soon as seats are available, the class will reopen and let people add. The semester will start with much fuller classes, some filled weeks before the beginning of school.
Originally all Pierce classes had waiting lists. For the last 18 months, the college was moving slowly to removing waiting lists, and over time some departments have opted to limit the waiting lists to zero, as others continued to keep it.
Business Education, Computer Applications and Office Technologies and some other departments are still concerned about eliminating waiting lists because they have huge classes and think it would be discouraging to the students.
They also see it as an issue of fairness to students.
“We sort of feel it’s unfair for those students who really make a concerted effort to try to add a class, and therefore they are on the list,” said business professor Richard Ahrens. “If they feel they have a chance, they are probably going to come to that class. If they are not on any waiting list, that means that someone who didn’t really try to get on it comes to class and they get into the class one-two-three.”
Kathy Holland, adjunct instructor of political science, shares his view.
“I like the idea as an option. I know for myself I use the wait list every single semester,” she said. “It gives any student who really-really want to be in the class, but couldn’t get enrolled, a second chance of getting enrolled.”
First-time student Erica Ramirez, 17, majoring in nursing, was on the waiting lists for all her 13 units, and was able to enroll in all of them.
“Waiting lists are good, because it gives new incoming students a chance to get into classes,” Ramirez said.
Supporters of the waiting lists reason that they help track demand for sections and provide the convenience of filling classes by priority simply by going down the list in order.
According to Abu-Ghazaleh, because of the low budget, which prevents the school from opening up more classes, having the ability to see how many students are trying to enroll in a filled class doesn’t offer an advantage.
At the Sept. 14 Academic Senate meeting, English professor Richard Follett raised a concern about informing students in order to avoid confusion about which classes have lists and which don’t.
Students in the English department, business department and CAOT, who are used to having waiting lists, would check class online and, if the class is full and there are no waiting lists, they will think class is closed and are not going to come back and check again.
“We certainly have to let the students know…if we are going to have a change of policy,” Follett said. “If we do that, that’s fine. So everybody knows, ‘I need to get on my computer regularly and check.'”
Without waiting lists the students will simply come to the class on the first day and try to add. It will be some random selection, a concept of lottery where everyone has an equal chance. The instructors will implement their own system.
But as long as college doesn’t have an ideal waiting list system, Abu-Ghazaleh advises students to plan well in advance, not miss their priority registration appointments and make it to class to secure their seat.
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