Amended time ticket ordering is sign of good faith | The Triangle

Amended time ticket ordering is sign of good faith

Drexel’s administration recently reversed a decision made in the fall that allowed freshmen to register for winter classes before most upperclassmen. Students strongly criticized the move when it was made, and University officials listened to their concerns.

When representatives from The Triangle talked to N. John DiNardo from the Office of the Provost, he expressed that the administration decided to change back the registration order because of feedback from upperclassmen. He made it clear that he and his colleagues are genuinely concerned with the efficiency of the registration system and the success of Drexel students. And DiNardo is not the first administrator who has expressed that student success is his top priority. Many University officials have office hours open to students — and they actually listen to what students have to say.

The reversal of this change was a common-sense decision, and we are thrilled to have seen it take place. The administration has had somewhat of a reputation among students for being unresponsive to feedback in recent years, and while there have been some situations where student feedback could have been better received, this latest action proves that the administration does listen to us and does have our best interests in mind.

We hope that this refreshing receptiveness to student input will help continue to improve the time ticket ordering, as there are still issues to address even after the revision. Freshmen weren’t the only group whose position was changed in the winter-term registration order. Graduating seniors and Pennoni Honors College members were moved to the first day of registration, which previously only contained undergraduate time tickets for athletes, ROTC students, veteran students and performing arts scholarship recipients. These changes remain in place despite the reversal of the freshman time ticket move.

While we don’t see any problem with either the former or current placement of the graduating senior time ticket, we think it’s unfair that the honors time ticket remains on the first day of registration. Honors College members previously registered after continuing seniors and before juniors, and we believe that was a more fair ordering. Many freshmen and sophomores register with the honors time ticket, and they don’t have major extracurricular commitments like most of the other groups that have time tickets on the first day of registration. Seeing as how continuing seniors only have a few terms left to complete their graduation requirements, we don’t think it makes sense to let all honor students register before them.

Although there is still room for improvement in the registration order, we are very pleased with how the administration responded to student feedback after the first set of changes were made. We are hopeful that University officials will continue to listen and act on student concerns pertaining to course registration and other issues on our campus.

So let us as students do our part to voice our concerns to University officials and help improve our collegiate experience in the process.