Editorial: Putting a stop to scheduling problems

As college students, new technology constantly surrounds us, and it seems as though Rider always tries to come up with a new and more efficient way for students to do necessary tasks. However, sometimes it falls short.
Scheduling classes is an endeavor that tends to cause a good amount of stress, and changing up the old way of doing things during this time can cause problems for students. The Banner system was created on myRider for students as a one-stop place to search and register for classes. Yet, not all processes online work the way they are intended to, and this can bring about unexpected glitches during scheduling crunch time.
The new registration process was first used by students last semester and was met with confusion and recurring problems. Having everything online and available at students’ fingertips is beneficial and allows for people to sign up for classes without leaving their rooms. While it does have a convenience factor to it, students experienced some problems right from the get-go, which led to them having to go to the Registrar anyway to settle them.
Issues are still arising with online scheduling as we approach the end of the first week of registration. Problems in this area are easier for upperclassmen to deal with within the first week, being some what familiar with the system, yet soon underclassmen will be up to register. According to Susie Geraci of the Registrar’s Office, from this first week of scheduling alone, the office has seen more than 100 students. Some common problems included students overlooking certain class restrictions and prerequisites and the way the science labs are listed.
“A lot of the problem is that students don’t realize the class restrictions and it causes confusion,” Geraci said. “It’s a new system still, so there is trial and error.”
Though it is understandable for a new program to have problems in the beginning, this is the second semester the Banner system is in use and students are still experiencing the same old problems.
Another confusing thing for students is the Class Registration Number (CRN), which is a vital part of the new scheduling system. Over the years at Rider, especially this year, departments have changed the names of certain courses, along with their CRN. Not knowing of the change can cause problems when trying to register and fulfill requirements for graduation, especially for seniors making sure to complete everything that’s needed for their last semester. Students should be informed as to which classes CRNs were changed, in order to avoid a panic come scheduling day.
To fully make something more efficient and helpful, kinks need to be worked out completely. The reason for creating the Banner system was to eliminate the need for everyone to go to the Registrar for help and to have an overall simpler process. However, it seems as though the all-in-one system has made things more difficult not just for students, but for the registrar staff as well.
Geraci explained that the Banner system is a program in which she types all the information in by hand. She meets with the deans and department chairs to put together the course catalogue we all view from our laptops. Having said this, we should allow room for human error for such a big job.
Perhaps most of the issues rest upon students not knowing exactly where to look or what to look for. In that case, we should be informed in detail what we are to do to prior registration in order to prepare ourselves. If we were aided more in the process, fewer issues would occur for students’ schedules.
“Students need to look at the info ahead of time, but you aren’t made aware of what exactly is on the web to look at,” Geraci said.
The new procedure is still a learning process, not just for us as students but also for Registrar staff and the administration. Since many people have experienced difficulty with it this semester, hopefully something can be done to make the system a smoother one and ease our stressed minds.

The weekly editorial expresses the
majority opinion of The Rider News.
This week’s editorial was written by the
Opinion Editor, Kristy Grinere.