Registration and Add/Drop Struggles Cause Student Stress

As many students and professors at St. Lawrence University have found out, the add-drop period here at school is somewhat subpar. In the beginning of the semester, the prospect of figuring out if the class is right for you can be stress inducing.

David Kunin ’19 found it incredibly difficult to switch classes this semester after realizing that there were other classes better suited to his major. He attempted to get into two different classes, both of which were already full and no longer accepted student additions. Sadly, this is a stressful reality many students here face.

Most class sizes have less than 30 students per section and there are only a few sections offered of high demand courses.

This situation is also stressful for the professors involved because they need to make sure to sign all of the slips and respond to emails from students asking to be placed in their classes.

This system has been called “inefficient and labor intensive for [both] students and faculty” by Allison Rowland, an assistant professor in the Performance and Communication Arts department.

This problem is being tackled by the registrar office at the moment, but there is much to be done. There are also many ideas about some of the solutions St. Lawrence could go with.

One idea, from Randy Hill, Professor of Performance and Communication Arts, would force departments to save seats in the necessary classes for majors and minors in order for students to fulfill their credits.

Another solution that Mr. Hill volunteered was having students register for the courses that have to do with their majors (or minors) first and then either extracurricular or graduation requirements.

There seems to be no easy solution to this issue as many of the classrooms themselves are filled to maximum capacity, so that the room could not possibly hold any more students.

Also, St. Lawrence University prides itself on educating the whole student, meaning that each student takes classes in areas that are not their specialty.

Having this as a graduation requirement allows students to branch out and experience subjects that they might have never thought about taking.

However, it can also make it stressful when trying to register for classes. Yes, you need to take a certain course for a major or a minor, but you also need to make sure to get all of the general education requirements too.

This is a much more complicated issue than people seem to give credit for. It does not solely fall on the registrar’s office for making it a complicated process, there is a lot that goes into this.

Hopefully, St. Lawrence will figure out a solution that makes both professors and students happier so that future Laurentians will not have to deal with the ongoing stress of the add-drop period.