Nathanael Mooney, Campus Carrier staff writer
Many upperclassmen had troubles with registering for courses this semester. The group of students who were affected the most were the secondary education majors. These students are required to take a student teaching placement and a senior seminar class. The issue started when some students were unable to select the required corequisite that would have allowed the students to go to their student teaching assignment. The affected classes include upper-level education classes. The issues caused a lot of stress for the students, and some feared they would not be able to graduate on time.
Junior Lauren Davis was one of the students who experienced these problems with registration.
“It’s a privilege as a [rising] senior to register for both semesters and have that be your last time registering, and it has been real bumpy for all of us,” Davis said.
She also experienced communication issues throughout the ordeal and said she received an email about the issue being fixed while she was still undergoing difficulties registering. Despite the trouble, she was able to finish registration for all of her classes next year.
Director of Teacher Education Jill Cochran had been working with the registrar’s office since the week before registration to get these issues resolved.
“We work closely with [the registrar’s office] to try to smooth these things out, and we learnt some lessons that should make it smoother next year,” Cochran said.
Cochran reported that, to her knowledge, there were no issues left as of Friday. This involved changing the status of some students manually.
There are more than 60 classes in the education department so technical issues are expected during registration time. While the ordeal caused students a lot of stress, none of the students were ever in real danger of not being able to graduate on time. Rising seniors apply for their student teaching placement in February. This ensures the department knows who is going to be teaching and guarantees the student a spot even if issues such as Viking Web malfunctions are to occur. The goal is to make student teaching as seamless of a transition as possible.
Technical difficulties are not the only struggle education majors are facing this semester. After completing the foundation classes and introductory education classes, education majors then start taking classes for their concentration.
Sophomore Brian Thomas is an elementary education major who has struggled with securing the classes that he needs.
“I’m a musical theatre minor and I do not think [the Department of Theatre and the Department of Teacher Education] really get to work with each other so that presents its own issues which are specific to me,”
Thomas said.
Many of the higher-level courses in the education department have pre-requisites for those courses, and Thomas has struggled to make a schedule that allows him to take all of the required courses. He said overlapping classes are a problem for him when it comes to taking all the classes he needs. Thomas also had technical issues with registration similar to Davis but said that it was much less of a problem for him.
The education department has worked with the registrar’s office to ensure the existing ones are put into the system correctly. They are also making sure it is clear what classes are supposed to be taken, in what order and which are taken together.