The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, the class spots. A registration error in the Banner Self –Service system allowed more than 235 students to register for classes on Sunday night, before the opening of senior registration on Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 a.m.
“We have experienced this before, but not on this global scale. We are still investigating why our controls broke down,” Registration and Scheduling Coordinator Matthew Gerst said. “For the most part the system is functioning properly, but there has obviously been a loophole somewhere and we are working with individuals at [Information Technology Services] to fix that.”
As of press time, 235 students have been removed from the classes that they registered for before their appropriate registration start-date. Those students were notified with a blind-copied email from the registrar’s office, informing them that they had been dropped from all the classes for which they had registered early.
“Any individuals who are ineligible to register at this point were dropped and will continue to be dropped,” Gerst said.
However, seniors who registered before senior registration were not dropped from classes; the error was found after senior registration opened on Monday, when those students would have normally been in the system.
“It is a pain to get up at 7 a.m. and register, I don’t even understand why they have it [then],” senior Candace Potter said. “I mean, we’re college students…who wants to get up that early?”
Students discovered the error over the weekend as they were looking up classes on Banner. Junior Kate Bartlett was one of those students who discovered it, and even put the news as her Facebook status to inform other students. Bartlett, however, didn’t want to exploit the error; she saw it as more of an opportunity for students.
“I have been screwed over by registration for years, trying to get on Banner early to get the good professors,” Bartlett said. “When I discovered you could register early, I figured I would go on Facebook and tell my friends to help them get the classes and professors they wanted.”
After the error was discovered, the word quickly spread among the student body.
“My roommate told me about it after she had received a text from her friend. The news spread really fast,” Potter said. “This was a lucky break for the seniors.”