CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, POMONA

ACADEMIC SENATE

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

REPORT TO

THE ACADEMIC SENATE

AA-002-056

Change in Registration Timeline and Order

Academic Affairs Committee Date: 3/29/06

Steering Committee

Received and Forwarded Date: 4/5/06

Academic Senate Date: 4/12/06

First Reading

5/10/06

Second Reading

Background:

The referral requests moving registration for Fall quarter from Summer quarter to Spring Quarter for continuing students. This referral is tightly coupled with another referral (AA-001-056), which would change the registration order of returning and incoming students.

This referral proposes several changes intended to increase student persistence, provide advising while instructors are available, and improve enrollment management, since classes could be added to meet increased student demand after the spring registration of continuing students. If FTES was too low after the spring registration period, the Administration could attempt to attract more new students or contact continuing students who had not registered during Spring quarter. Fee payment schedule would not change. The University calendar would be changed, so that catalog revisions were earlier. Department chairs would need to prepare summer and fall schedules earlier. Registration for Summer and Fall quarters would take place consecutively during Spring Quarter after one single advising session for both quarters.

The Academic Affairs Committee consulted a number of resources for this referral and AA-001-056 concurrently:

Representatives of the University Administration

Comparisons with other CSU campuses

Groups within Student Affairs

Groups that request priority registration

Department Chairs

University Faculty

Students

Representatives of the University Administration (Claudia Pinter-Lucke, Interim Associate Vice President, Undergraduate Studies; Kathy Street, Associate Vice President, Enrollment Management and Services; Margaret M. Kasimatis, Executive Director of Institutional Research, Arleen Elseroad, Registrar: Assessment & Planning; and Debra Brum and Mauricio Calderon of I&IT).

These administrators have been working on enrollment management issues since last fall. They believe that the proposed change is technologically and organizationally feasible. One of the possible outcomes of this proposed change will be increased or at least stable FTES. They believe that implementing this proposed change will increase the likelihood that returning students will continue in the Fall quarter if they have registered during Spring quarter. In addition, they believe that they will have time to admit more new students after they see the registration levels for continuing students for Fall quarter, based on the target FTEs levels. Knowing registration for Fall quarter will also provide more flexibility in adding new classes and finding instructors for them earlier in the summer. Students would be able to obtain advising in the Spring when more faculty are on campus. Some departments have no advisors available during the summer, and in other departments with summer classes, , instructors are not paid to perform service, such as advising. I&IT is planning to run tests this Spring to show that PeopleSoft can handle the changed schedule (consecutive enrollment during the same quarter).

Comparisons with other CSU campuses

Of the 23 CSU campuses, 3 of the 6 quarter term schools (Bakersfield, East Bay, and San Bernardino) hold registration for Fall during Spring quarter. Of the remaining semester CSU campuses, 11 begin registration during Spring, but several continue it into and throughout the Summer. In a study of the cohort of 1997 first-time Freshmen, Cal Poly Pomona’s retention rate from first to second year was 0.827, second only to San Luis Obispo (0.869, which also has summer registration). In the 6-year graduation rate, Pomona ranked third (0.446) behind San Luis Obispo (0.646) and Fullerton (0.476).

Student Affairs Departments:

Disabled Student Services thought that the change might be confusing and overwhelming to disabled students because it would add an additional springtime deadline to students who often have difficulty organizing their work. DSS students currently have priority registration in June. If the date was moved earlier in Spring quarter and students missed their priority registration dates, they would then have to wait until August to register. That does not give DSS adequate time to prepare any required alternate media or arrange fall tutoring schedules.

Orientation Services considered that changing the registration order would allow better prediction of new student targets, allow additional workdays for orientation closer to Fall quarter, but might affect the availability of classes for new students. It would be easier for offices that hire student assistants to know their Fall quarter schedules.

Groups that request priority registration

Undergraduate Studies; Student Support and Equity Programs (SSEP); Music Department; Office of Student Life; Disability Resource Center; Dean of Students; Athletic Department; Senior Coordinator OSL/Rose Float; Honors Program; Maximizing Engineering Potential

Summary of issues raised

Challenges

·  There is concern that not every class would have enough spaces reserved for new incoming freshmen, transfers, new EOP students, athletes, etc. (i.e. would spaces be ‘saved’ in honors courses? Upper and lower division courses? Would spaces be saved in all courses or just in ‘traditional freshmen’ courses?)

·  Financial aid for EOP students [and others] is based on minimum unit totals…if no courses are available, financial aid cannot be secured.

·  Spring pre-registration for summer and fall will greatly accelerate SSEP’s process of planning for, recruiting, and requesting priority registration for the number of support tutors/mentors needed, because they can’t complete their staff by and request priority registration for them earlier than they presently are. It is apparently already difficult for SSEP to complete recruiting by the deadline for submittal of priority registration requests as the schedule stands, and this will be compounded if summer and fall registration are consecutive, and moved to the spring.

·  There is concern that prerequisite checking either will or will not work in BroncoDirect.

·  There is concern that the schedule of classes be available early enough for students and advisors to plan student schedules, and early enough to submit priority registration requests.

Benefits

·  Current students would know their fall schedule sooner, and this might make for better planning of work schedules and possibly increased retention, although this last point was questioned by respondents.

·  Earlier registration would force students to seek advising/hold removal earlier, and this might improve students’ ability to meet eligibility requirements (athletes), financial aid requirements: earlier/better/more appropriately timed advising might lead to a better plan for the student, thus improving progress and time-to-degree.

Other comments

·  There is concern that such a move should generate a true commitment to quality advising, rather than reinforcing the advising session as simply a removal of a hold

·  When will financial aid be decided relative to timing of pre-registration? Students who are uncertain of their financial aid status may be less inclined to pre-register, or to follow through on their pre-registration by attending.

Faculty response: Of the 11 faculty members who responded to this query, 8 were opposed to it, 2 favored it, and 1 person was neutral. The University Faculty who responded to issues that are included in both AA-001-506 and AA-002-056 were quite vocal in their opposition to the change. In general, they were skeptical about whether the change could be managed and would work for students. They thought the change would be especially hard for incoming transfers, since it would be hard to predict what courses they might take. If new students were unable to enroll in classes they need they might easily become upset and switch to another university, and Cal Poly Pomona would get a reputation as a school where new students were not welcome.

Department Chairs:

A member of the committee surveyed Department Chairs about the issues they see in such a change. Chairs are responsible for the schedule of courses and faculty coverage for those courses. The responses fell in several categories:

·  Advising: There was a consensus that spring registration for fall would be better for student advising (with some important caveats mentioned below). Improving advising for students would be consistent with the current emphasis on becoming a learning- centered university. The lack of advisors during the summer appears to be a major problem in many departments, especially those without a year-round chair. This begs a key question: how many students register for the fall semester with no advisement? Perhaps an assessment is needed to determine this.

·  Course scheduling: Shifting Fall registration of returning students into the Spring quarter would make it easier for department chairs to plan the number of sections, classroom space, and need for instructors. A solid projection for fall enrollment of both continuing and new students would be available by the end of the Spring quarter. Departments then would have better information and more time to adjust course schedules to meet student needs for the fall term.

·  Availability of classes for Incoming students: It will be important to assure that incoming students are able to register for the courses they need. It may be possible that many continuing students who could not previously get lower level courses intended for freshman and transfer students would rapidly fill those courses during Spring registration. If this happens, chairs could use this information to plan a solution. This can lead to a conflict over who is valued more: the incoming new student or the continuing student. The needs of ALL students must be addressed in terms of course availability. However, a few chairs thought there would be a disadvantage in assigning courses to specific faculty, or just to “staff”, and in deciding which lecturers to retain

·  Prerequisite checking: Many students are likely taking prerequisite courses during the spring and possibly the summer. Their Fall registration in courses requiring these prerequisites would be blocked. This would necessitate a change in how prerequisites are considered in the registration process.

·  Fee Payment: Payment of fees is a potential concern if the schedule for fee payment for Fall quarter is changed.

·  Rationale for this change: Several chairs questioned the reason for this change. If the change is based on better enrollment management, we need some assessment data to justify the change. Is the rationale to provide better planning and advisement? Indeed, one department (Chemistry) indicated they already advise students in late spring quarter for fall. It seems intuitive that advising for fall should happen during the spring quarter, but whether to have registration follow seems to be problematic especially because of the prerequisite checks.

Students were polled by the ASI representative and several faculty on the committee.

In general, students who responded to the ASI survey were relatively indifferent to the changed registration schedule. It should be noted that this poll was taken in student club meetings, and that these students probably have active campus lives.

Issue / Yes / % / Maybe / % / No / % / None / % / Total
Prefer registering Spring to Fall? / 42 / 38.5% / 24 / 22.0% / 43 / 39.4% / 0 / 0 / 109
More likely to attend in Fall if registered in Spring for Fall quarter / 36 / 33.0% / 19 / 17.4% / 54 / 49.5% / 0 / 0 / 109
How likely are you to change instructors if “staff” is listed? / 62 / 56.9% / 25.7 / 18% / 18 / 16.5% / 1 / 0.9% / 109
Advising for Summer & Fall in same session? / 44 / 40.4 / 31 / 28.4% / 32 / 29.4% / 2 / 1.8% / 109
Are you attending in Fall 2006? / 82 / 75.2% / 9 / 8.3% / 17 / 15.6% / 1 / 0.9% / 109

One student commented that she would find it stressful to have to figure out what courses she would take for both summer and fall in a relatively compressed time period.

Discussion:

The original request suggested that the reasons for this shift in registration order coupled with the change of registration for continuing students to spring quarter would increase retention. Since there does not seem to be any research and even he practices of our fellow CSU campuses does not support this assumption, the Academic Affairs Committee decided it was necessary to poll the wider Cal Poly Pomona community on the issues involved in changing registration for Fall Quarter to Spring Quarter. The Administration developed this change as part of its enrollment management program intended to maintain FTES (and budget) in light of the reduction of the number of units to degree to 180 quarter units. The surveys identified the following advantages and risks:

Advantages:

·  Chairs have improved ability to manage demand for classes and obtain instructors

·  Advising for students is more available during Spring than during summer quarter

·  Administration would have time to identify new students who might be encouraged to enroll to raise FTES

·  On-campus units could hire student assistants with the hours they need coverage.

Risks:

·  Places in class for new students: Managing the availability of classes for new students who register during priority registration in Summer appears risky. The administrators believe that they can predict the numbers of seats that are required in classes that Freshmen usually take, based on history. However, about one-third of the new undergraduates are transfer students, and the ability to predict and then titrate the availability of seats for new transfers and Freshmen who fall outside their predicted numbers is difficult at best. Honors Program students often take more advanced courses because they took AP courses in high school, and might have difficulty finding classes. EOP students have to take a certain number of units to qualify for financial aid. Faculty members are less than confident about this as well, and worry that classes may be opened because of perceived demand and then that resources will not be available to keep them open if they have small enrollments. Class enrollments might also be increased beyond their maximum numbers as students are given permission numbers to add classes that are closed. If this effort fails, and the word spreads that new students at Cal Poly Pomona cannot obtain classes, or that classes are often cancelled over the Summer, then the entire effort fails and FTES drop. While the Administration optimistically believes it can handle this effort successfully, they do not seem to have considered other efforts that might be equally successful with less risk.