I applaud the Arts and Science administration for their effort to bring waiting lists to the course enrolment system. Sadly, however, because of the overly simplistic design of the new system, the waiting lists have failed to make any significant improvement for students, and in some cases have proven to be a major inconvenience. Allow me to briefly recount how the old system functioned in order to clarify how waiting lists ought to have been introduced.
Last year, before waiting lists, students would sign up for as many of their top choices as they could. Invariably they would be unable to get into all of their top five, and so they would round out their five-course allotment with less appealing choices.
Having secured a full schedule, students would then try to improve upon their courses. They would log on to ROSI as often as possible in hopes that a space had come available in their most desired course. The lucky student who was online at the right moment would quickly drop one of their earlier choices to make space for the preferred option.
This year, students may no longer need to spend their days monitoring ROSI, but because students cannot put themselves on waiting lists when already enrolled in five courses, the time-saving benefit comes at an even greater cost.
As always, students will be unable to get into all of their favourite courses. Like before, they may get into, say, three, but this year they will have a painful choice about what to do with their remaining selections.
Should students sign up for their less preferable choices that still have space available, or should they risk being put on a waiting list that may never bear fruit? How long should they sit on the waiting list as the start date looms? And if they don’t get into the courses they are waiting for, will the less-preferred choices still be available later?
Under the new system, students who want to secure a full set of five courses will no longer have the opportunity to improve their selections because they will not be eligible for the waiting lists. On the other hand, students who sit on waiting lists risk not being able to take a full courseload.
The solution to this problem is quite simple. If a student were enrolled in five courses, but wished to be on the waiting list for others, ROSI could allow that student to select the course (or courses) which would be automatically dropped should the student be accepted into their preferred choice. This system would still be fully automated (no need for students to log on to ROSI to manipulate their schedules) while continuing to prevent students from being enrolled in more than five full courses.
This improved system would also allow the student to be on all of the waiting lists (up to a maximum of five full courses) needed to produce their ideal schedule, while alleviating any concern that they might find themselves with no good options for a full courseload once classes begin.
The fact that classes would be automatically dropped to make space for better ones would spark a chain reaction of students getting into more of their preferred courses. Students would end up being generally happier with their schedules.
While it may be too late to correct the current waiting list’s flaw in time for this year’s enrolment, I hope that the administration considers my suggestion for 2007-2008.
Andrew Jehan is a student of philosophy at U of T.
