Unable to register for classes
By: Greg Dewey -

Today (11/17) registration for the Spring semester began. Students who had a sign-up time around 6pm were able to register for classes but by 6:30pm online registration had stopped working.

For seniors who need to get certain classes to graduate this creates a problem. What if they don’t get the necessary classes? Will teachers grant closed class authorizations to students who may not get the classes they need?

It is frustrating that after years of having online registration the University still has not ironed out the problems. It seems every semester something goes awry and students do not get to register at their appointed time. One would hope that UMBC would eventually manage to pull off a registration without any problems, however with the current track record that seems unlikely.

*Update*
As of 10:30pm registration is working once again. Lets hope no more problems arise with the system during registration.

Bookmark and Share
Filed under: News, Opinion | Comments (2)
Comments
Leave a Comment

My neighborhood lost power last night for a few hours right before/around 7PM until around 10:25PM. Although this was 10 minutes away from UMBC, was this problem perhaps due to an server issue beyond UMBC’s control? The weather wasn’t exactly horrid, but if there were power outages/glitches…?

Sonic - November 18, 2008, 8:12 pm

People with 95 credits didn’t start registering until around 9:30-10 a.m. on the 18th. People with greater than 99 credits did register on the 17th, but I seriously doubt that the downtime affected anyone’s ability to get the class they need. Even if it did, shooting a professor an e-mail within an hour or two can really help. If you need the class to graduate you can almost always get into the class.

The advanced registration schedule is posted here: http://www.umbc.edu/registrar/schedule/S09RegestrationInformation.html#advanceRegTime

The myUMBC system is simply a system that lays overtop of a HP3000 mainframe. This is a system that has handled class registration and such for the better part of 20 years (AFAIK). The myUMBC system might get upgraded and look spiffier every year, but the backend system remains the same. Errors crop up. Quite frankly I’m amazed the system still works; somehow thousands of students are able to register every semester just fine.

If you really want the University to fix the problem, I’d start lobbying for a new system to replace the HP 3000. I hope I’m gone by then. If you think that the problems we have now are bad, I’d hate to see what might popup during a full-blown system transition.

Crusader - November 19, 2008, 10:33 am