Priority registration is an important event in our efforts to retain students in the college. This 2 ½ week period is when all our continuing students (those not graduating) are assigned a time to register for classes in the upcoming term. For spring 2023, priority registration started on Oct. 24 and continues through this Tuesday, Nov. 8. During this timeframe, we want to get every student registered for their spring courses.
As of this morning, all our seniors, juniors and sophomores are eligible to register for spring classes. Our freshmen will be eligible today or tomorrow depending on their assigned registration times.
Students to register
The college has 1,185 majors to register for spring 2023 (double majors are counted twice in this figure).
Upperclassmen
All of our upperclassmen are eligible to register for classes if they don’t have a hold on their student account. Seventy-seven percent of our upperclassmen have registered for spring 2022.
Our journalism upperclassmen have registered at the highest rate, 82.4%, while sports media and communication are the lowest, 72.6%.
For those that haven’t registered, student account holds are a primary barrier to registration for our students. To date, 210 upperclassmen have not yet registered for spring. Ninety-two, 43.8% of them have holds on their student account. Student account holds are put in place for a variety of reasons and, generally, keep students from registering for classes.
- Admissions Office Hold: Holds for students who have not yet submitted their high school (or college transfer) transcripts.
- Compass Hold: Holds from the Explore Center for pre-health and pre-law students put in place until they meet with their explore center adviser.
- Health Center Hold: Holds from the Health Center in place until students submit their immunization records.
- Probation Hold: Holds for students on academic probation until they meet with their adviser to develop an academic success plan.
- Student Account Hold <$200: Hold for students who owe less than $200 on their student accounts. This hold DOES NOT prevent students from registering for classes.
- Student Account Hold >$200: Hold for students who owe more than $200 on their student account. This hold DOES prevent students from registering for classes.
Freshmen
Our freshmen students have not yet started to register for Spring 2023 courses but will be eligible to do so in the next two days. We have 257 freshmen to register.
While freshmen can’t yet register, we already know that some face barriers through student account holds. Twenty-five percent of our freshmen currently have student account hold.
Supporting Enrollment and Retention
The university and the college employ a number of tactics to encourage student enrollment during priority registration to ultimately support student retention.
University and College Communications: The university communicates enrollment eligibility and account hold status to students through MyRed. They also promote the opportunity to enroll through email communication. The college has been promoting priority registration in student communications for several weeks. We also communicated about priority registration to parents through our parent newsletter, The Adviser, in September.
Academic Advising: The CoJMC academic advisers communicated with their assigned advisees in the weeks leading up to priority registration. They have also been meeting with students, through walk-in appointments, since priority registration started. Since Oct. 24, our academic advising team has met with 264 students, averaging 26 appointments per day.
Account Hold Outreach: Our new academic navigator, Sarah Troupe, has been conducting outreach to students with student account holds. She has been providing information on how to have holds lifted so that students can enroll at their scheduled time.
Unregistered Outreach: Following priority registration, our academic advising team will begin individual outreach to unregistered students. Our goal is to contact each unregistered student three times before the end of the academic year to encourage them and support them in spring registration.
How can you help?
Recruitment and retention aren’t solely the responsibility of academic advisers. This responsibility falls on every university employee. So, how can you help support our students during priority registration?
Promote your classes: Promote the classes you are teaching in the spring to your current students. Help them get excited about the future.
Remind them about registration: Remind your students about priority registration and encourage them to get enrolled as soon as possible.
Connect them to resources: Encourage your students to visit with their academic adviser. Their adviser can recommend classes for them, make sure they are on track for their degree and connect them with campus resources to overcome any barriers they face.
Encourage them to overcome fear or embarrassment: Many students with account holds are embarrassed and don’t want to talk to their adviser about their situation. Please let them know that CoJMC is a safe space and that we want to help them.