Branches move to Web registration

‘ ‘ ‘ Relief is one year away for students who are tired of waiting in long lines at Thackeray… ‘ ‘ ‘ Relief is one year away for students who are tired of waiting in long lines at Thackeray Hall to register and add / drop classes. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt’s branch campuses launched the inaugural semester of online registration for students last month, a test drive before the online registration gets to the Oakland campus next October. ‘ ‘ ‘ The system, registrar officials said, was successful. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt-Johnstown’s Office of the Registrar was the first to launch the pilot program, registering students for the spring 2009 semester beginning Oct. 6. ‘ ‘ ‘ The Greensburg campus registered students online beginning Oct. 8. Pitt-Bradford launched the system the next week, Oct. 14. ‘ ‘ ‘ Marilyn Alberter, the registrar at the Johnstown campus, the largest of the four branch campuses, said the process went smoothly, and the majority of students registered on their own computers. ‘ ‘ ‘ Prior to this registration, students had to fill out a form and turn it into the registrar’s office. ‘ ‘ ‘ The Johnstown office processed about 750 students’ registrations in the old system on the first day last year. This year, they processed 1,523 ‘mdash; more than double ‘mdash; in the first day, as students logged onto their PeopleSoft accounts, filled out their class request information and registered. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘They can do it on their blackberries. They can on their laptops. They can do it in Pittsburgh. They can do it in Alaska,’ said Alberter. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Your generation is so used to tech, and you understand shopping carts,’ she added. ‘That’s how it works. You put your classes on the shopping cart, and you check out.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Students had to meet with their advisers before they could gain clearance on the system to register, Alberter said. ‘ ‘ ‘ At Pitt-Titusville, the smallest of the branch campuses, 163 students ‘mdash; about half the campus’ population ‘mdash; registered online on Oct. 16. ‘ ‘ ‘ Tess Hopson, a freshman at Pitt-Titusville, registered from her laptop on the second day of the campus’ online registration. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It was a lot more convenient than having to go through this process than having to set it up through paper,’ she said. ‘It was really easy to access, pretty straightforward.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ The only trouble she had with the program was the technical aspect of adding and dropping classes, she said. ‘ ‘ ‘ Limits in the system that prevent students from registering for too many classes or for two classes at the same time force students to go through the drop process before completing some course requests. ‘ ‘ ‘ In order to handle any problems that arose, Pitt’s head registrar Sam Conte, three of his staff members and Bob Treloar, a staff member in Computer Services and Systems Development, visited the registrar offices at the branch campuses on their launch days. ‘ ‘ ‘ Despite fears, the computer system was not overloaded on the first day of registration. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Really, the system response was good,’ said Conte. ‘Most of the students took about three minutes to register, and there wasn’t even a spike of users on the system.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Currently, students at main campus, which has about 27,000 graduate and undergraduate students combined ‘mdash; more than nine times the number of students at Johnstown’s campus ‘mdash; must see an adviser before registering, either through their department or at Thackeray Hall’s registration office. ‘ ‘ ‘ This won’t change with self-registration online. Students will gain access to the registration system online only after meeting with their advisers. ‘ ‘ ‘ Once they’ve gained an adviser’s clearance, students will have set times they can log into the system and complete their registration. ‘ ‘ ‘ Once registration is over, students will not have to see advisers nor visit the registration office to add/drop their courses. ‘ ‘ ‘ They can access the system 24 hours a day and add/drop classes until the add/drop period officially ends ‘mdash; usually two weeks into the semester. ‘ ‘ ‘ The PeopleSoft computerized registration system that Pitt uses on the my.pitt.edu portal could support self-registration since 2006, but Pitt has waited to enable the option. ‘ ‘ ‘ Conte said the branch campuses will hold their registrations for the summer 2009 and fall 2009 semesters on the same days, Feb. 16 and March 19, respectively. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt’s main campus will move to online registration next October for the spring 2010 semester, ‘so we’re on track,’ he said.