Registration is arguably the most stressful part of being a college student. It is a race to type a bunch of numbers as fast as you can to get an ideal schedule. Students are asked to wake up at 7 am, and often, they do not get the classes they need, let alone, the classes that they want. These stressful few minutes decide your fate for an entire semester. For the average student, registration is a nightmare. If universities want students to succeed, wouldn’t they want to make registration easier?

Registration at the University of New Haven is organized by year of graduation. Seniors go first and freshman go last. This is reasonable, seeing as seniors need to meet requirements to graduate. But what about special populations? Students in certain groups are allowed to register earlier than the rest of their class. This is a wonderful option for students with very hectic schedules that require specific times for their commitments. These special population groups include ROTC, athletes, veterans, marching band, campus access services, honors, and fast track students.

According to the university’s website, there are 325 student-athletes, 306 veterans, and 270 marching band members approximately 106 ROTC students and approximately 380 honor students. That’s a possible 1,387 students included in special populations without accounting for fast track and campus access services.

Taking into consideration that there are about 5,200 undergraduate students, over 1/4 are in a special population. If this many students get to register early, is it fair for the students that aren’t in a special population? These other students might not have hectic schedules required by the school, but they still have degree requirements, jobs and other commitments that can dictate their schedule. Is it the university’s position to decide which obligations are more important?

The university also makes it harder for the average student by preventing students from knowing which professor is teaching the class they are registering for. During registration, all courses have “staff TBD” listed instead of a professor. Many professors already know which classes they are teaching. There is no reason that students should be left in the dark about this. Many people have expressed worry that this would leave some professors’ classes filled and others’ empty. However, if a student needs to take a class for their major, they will take it regardless of who is teaching, albeit reluctantly. If a professor’s class still remains empty, there may be a good reason. Whether it’s because of language barriers, teaching style or even personal preference, students deserve to know who’s class they are signing up for before they do it. Students learn better in certain environments and they should be allowed to choose a professor to help them succeed. For students who learned English as a second language, hearing an unfamiliar accent speak it might be very hard to understand. For students who have anxiety or other mental illness, certain professors could make it impossible for the student to focus in class. All students come from different backgrounds, but they still want the chance to succeed.

The reasons that registration is a nightmare are endless. There are so many different numbers for students to look at course numbers, section numbers, registration numbers, registration pin numbers, etc. It’s often hard to see if seats are reserved or if a class is closed. When lab and lecture are core requirements, adding or changing one of them can be a hassle. Ask any student and they can provide you with a million more reasons. Students just want to flourish and succeed in college; why do colleges let them wither over one morning of their semester?