By Sarah Knepp
Miami University's Associated Student Government (ASG) is looking to modify the way students register for classes.
The new registration process would reform the current practice of allowing all students with priority registration to sign up for classes before anyone else, and instead focus on allowing students within the same academic class to register around the same time.
Students who currently have priority registration are those in the Honors Program, athletes and students with disabilities, to name a few. They account for around 3,000 members of the student body.
Secretary for Academic Affairs Kirsten Fowler said ASG supports the possible implementation of a new registration method called peer priority registration.
This would allow certain groups of students who have priority registration to still register early, while also allowing upperclassmen to register before younger students.
"So, essentially, seniors with priority registration would register, followed by seniors, then juniors with priority registration, then juniors, etcetera," Fowler said.
Peer priority registration would not change the groups of students who already have priority registration, or change when they currently register, Fowler said.
People who currently have priority registration are military veterans and active duty, honors students, athletes, students with disabilities and others, Fowler said.
Some groups of students would still have priority registration over everyone else, for legal purposes. For this reason, peer priority will not affect veterans and active duty military personnel.
Before the idea of peer priority registration, many students with a lot of credit hours would get shut out of classes because students with less credit hours got to register before them. Peer priority registration hopes to solve that problem.
"Priority registration is a useful tool, but we just want to ensure it is being utilized for its intended purpose and does not have any unintended consequences," Fowler said.
Students currently with and without priority registration have mixed reviews about the possibility of peer priority registration becoming a reality.
"Personally, I believe that they should change it [the registration process], because they barely offer enough classes for people to register for classes and graduate on time," sophomore Molly Green said. "The current system forces a lot of people to take fifth years because they get blocked out of classes by underclassmen."
Nicki Cuba, a sophomore in the honors program, thinks otherwise.
"The current system is a nice incentive to be in the honors program," she said. "I think it's fair because honors students have to get into honors classes to fulfill certain requirements."
Fowler and other members of ASG, along with administration, are still discussing the idea and what it would mean for class registration and the students at Miami.
"I am currently working with administration to determine if this is feasible and how/when it can be implemented, so a lot of this is still up in the air," Fowler said.
Officials with the honors program declined to comment on the matter of peer priority registration.
ASG will continue to work on and talk about this idea to see if it can become a reality here at Miami.
"There will be some legislation going through Student Senate soon that asks the administration to investigate this issue, and then ASG will continue to work with administrators on the issue," Fowler said.