By Ally Morthberg
The Center for Student Success (CSS) hosted the “Rise and Shine Registration Event for
First-Year Students” on November 7 to help incoming freshmen with the class registration
process and provide guidance for any issues they ran into.
Registering for classes for the first time can be confusing for new students who are still learning the college system. To help make this an easier process, the CSS team organized this event as a way to offer hands-on support and answer questions in real time. CSS staff member Glory Ames, who helped coordinate the event, said the team begins planning months in advance to make sure everything ran smoothly.
“We do this twice a year, in fall and spring,” Ames said. “We start planning at the
beginning of the year by nailing down the date, getting word out to advisors, FYS
professors, and anyone who works with first-year students. Because we’ve done it so many
times, we’re always trying to improve upon the last year.”
Ames said the goal of the event is to ensure that freshmen feel supported during what can be an overwhelming process.
“A lot of times at other colleges, they don’t have that support for registration,” Ames said.
“Our goal is to be that backup for students. It’s really scary for first-year students to
register for classes on their own for the first time. The process can be overwhelming.
Everyone’s trying to log in at 7 a.m., and classes fill up fast. So coming here and having
experts like academic counselors and advisors available makes it less stressful. We’re just
that extra support for when you’re doing this first big thing on your own.”
On the morning of the event, the CSS office was filled with first-year students, laptops, and the smell of fresh coffee. CSS staff and upperclassmen volunteers moved around the room, helping explain each step of the registration process and answering questions as they arose. For students who were unable to register for specific classes, there was an additional station where they could get help writing override requests to professors. Overall, the CSS team saw this event as a giant success.
“We had over 100 students checked in online, and the few that didn’t get a chance to swipe in, we also counted. So we think maybe we had 120 first year students registered to come. It went really well. I think holds weren’t too big of an issue as much as they have been in the last couple years. And then those that did, we were able to walk them through it, as well as override requests and things like that. We were very well organized this year”
The CSS team was extremely happy with the results of the event, and they plan to have a second one in the spring to help freshmen register for their classes the following fall.
