Students, faculty anxious about enforcing prereqs
Matthew Varley
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Campus News
As they peruse the Course Announcement Bulletins stuffed into university mailboxes this week, students are paying more attention to one detail - prerequisite classes.
For the first time, the University will block students from pre-registering for a course if they have not satisfied the class prerequisites. During the upcoming pre-registration period, beginning on April 22, faculty members will have authority to override the barrier at their discretion.
"It's not meant to say you absolutely cannot get in" to a class, Registrar Michael Pesta said of the change in Banner. "But on the other hand (faculty) are trying to tell students, 'You really should have this previous course in order to do the material.'"
Fulfillment of prerequisites was not checked under the "complicated" paper registration system used at the University prior to fall 2007, Pesta told The Herald, adding there was "almost too much ... flexibility in that system."
Pesta said Banner did not check prerequisites this academic year because all student records had not yet been added to the database. About 17 percent of courses at the University have prerequisites; of those, about 25 percent are language courses.
The latest change to the University's evolving class registration process has brought mixed reactions from students, some of whom said they are concerned the enforcement of prerequisites may bar students from classes for which they are academically prepared to take.
Different ideas of the course
Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said prerequisites are "built into the structure, the idea of the course" as determined by individual faculty members.
Enforcing prerequisites through Banner essentially "carries out the will of the faculty to the extent that the curriculum is designed by the faculty," Bergeron said. "There are some courses that will be heavily impacted," she added, noting the prevalence of prerequisites in fields such as economics.
For the first time, the University will block students from pre-registering for a course if they have not satisfied the class prerequisites. During the upcoming pre-registration period, beginning on April 22, faculty members will have authority to override the barrier at their discretion.
"It's not meant to say you absolutely cannot get in" to a class, Registrar Michael Pesta said of the change in Banner. "But on the other hand (faculty) are trying to tell students, 'You really should have this previous course in order to do the material.'"
Fulfillment of prerequisites was not checked under the "complicated" paper registration system used at the University prior to fall 2007, Pesta told The Herald, adding there was "almost too much ... flexibility in that system."
Pesta said Banner did not check prerequisites this academic year because all student records had not yet been added to the database. About 17 percent of courses at the University have prerequisites; of those, about 25 percent are language courses.
The latest change to the University's evolving class registration process has brought mixed reactions from students, some of whom said they are concerned the enforcement of prerequisites may bar students from classes for which they are academically prepared to take.
Different ideas of the course
Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said prerequisites are "built into the structure, the idea of the course" as determined by individual faculty members.
Enforcing prerequisites through Banner essentially "carries out the will of the faculty to the extent that the curriculum is designed by the faculty," Bergeron said. "There are some courses that will be heavily impacted," she added, noting the prevalence of prerequisites in fields such as economics.