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 A Cautionary Note About

Touch-Tone Registration Waitlists


Touch-tone registration Waitlists that begin when a course or section has filled with registered students serve a number of uses for faculty, departments, and the College. From the students' perspective, however, there is one important fact to know about how waitlists work. All students should be aware that there is no general rule that when overrides are issued for a class they must be written for students as they appear in numerical order on the waitlist. The waitlist exists to let the faculty member know who and how many students have waitlisted a particular section or course. And yes, the student names do appear on the list in the chronological order in which students added themselves to the list. No individual faculty member or department is obligated, however, to issue overrides by this numerical ordering. It may be felt that other criteria weigh more heavily. For example, class standing (senior, junior, etc.) or whether the student is a concentrator in the department or not may be considered more important than what number a student is on the waitlist. In fact, the only general guess one can reasonably make is that the rule of strictly following the waitlist number is pretty much restricted to lower-level courses that largely enroll first-year students (not all lower-level courses do this).

What does this mean, then, for a student who is about to complete a touch-tone registration? It means that having what appears to be a very good (low) number apparently assuring a place in a class may be, in fact, no guarantee at all. The best advice, then, is NOT to exit touch-tone registration without a full schedule of classes that could be lived with for the coming term. This may seem unnecessarily pessimistic because of the suggestion that not all students may end up with their preferred choices in class scheduling, but the advice is intended to be helpful because it offers the most protection.

Policy on

Print-outs


Students are responsible for the accuracy of their schedules. Students should carefully listen to the read-back before exiting the registration transaction. They should check for accuracy and completeness (e.g., ECB, P/F, properly numbered sections).
  • Students need to be sure that a course has been modified properly.
  • The accuracy of the P/F designation is particularly important since, after open drop/add, a course cannot be changed from graded to P/F or vice versa.
  • The ECB modifier must be used only for approved course/section numbers (from the official list in the LS&A Course Guide).
  • Students should ensure that they have no unintended time conflicts.

Most students can access their schedules at anytime, from anywhere (with a computer or phone). Students are encouraged to access Touch-Tone Registration or Wolverine Access to confirm their schedule. Students may have their schedule read to them, faxed to a local number, or electronically mailed to their X.500 e-mail address. A copy of the schedule can also be printed from Wolverine Access.

Policy on

Class Attendance


A. It is critical that students attend classes from the beginning of the term. Even though students may be registered officially for a course, departments may give away a student's place in a course if the student does not attend:
  • the first meeting of biology, chemistry, and physics laboratories
  • the first meeting of English Composition Board courses
  • either of the first two meetings of English courses
  • the first meetings of History 396 and 397
  • any one of the first four meetings of language courses in the Romance Languages department
  • the first two meetings of courses in other departments

At the same time, departments are not obligated to withdraw students officially from the course, even though the student has been informed that his/her place in a course has been taken away.

Students are responsible for the accuracy of their schedules and must be sure that all drops are processed through Touch-Tone Registration during the normal drop/add period.

B. Students are expected to attend classes regularly. When the instructor considers the number of absences excessive, that is, when a student's absence from a course endangers that student's satisfactory academic progress, the instructor may send a written report on the case to the appropriate advising office.

Concerted absence from any appointed duty by a class or by any number of students together will be regarded as improper conduct, and those participating in such action shall be liable to disciplinary action.

Members of athletic teams must present to each instructor, prior to each absence because of the membership on athletic teams, a written statement signed by the appropriate authority specifying the exact date of any such proposed absence.