S.94-29
•
?
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Office of
the Vice-President, Academic
?
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Senate
From: ?
J.M. Munro, Chair, Senate Committee on Academic Planning
Subject ?
Access to Telephone Registration for New (Semester 1) Students
Date: ?
March 14, 1994
Action undertaken at the meeting of the Senate Committee on Academic Planning on
March 9, 1994 gives rise to the following motion:
• ?
Motion: ?
"That Senate approve as set forth in S.94 - 29 , the change to the
registration priority of new students."
F]
•
? S ?
SCAP 94-17
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ?
MEMORANDUM
To:
?
SCAP ?
From: &)n Heath
Secretary, SCUS
Subject: Access to Telephone Registration
?
Date: March 4, 1994
for New (Semester 1) Students
At the meeting of SCUS on March 3, 1994, the attached report from W. Wattamaniuk
was received for discussion. As noted in the memorandum, last fall the Office of the
Registrar and many departmental offices received complaints from new students and
their parents that they found it impossible to gain entry to any courses. We knew
from previous experience that course spaces would open up as we moved through
• the registration and course drop process, but that is small consolation to new students
who are inexperienced with the registration system. W. Wattamaniuk notes that
'many of these course places were subsequently released in the first three weeks of
classes'. In fact, last fall at the end of week three, with 17,522 course places available at
the 100 level, 14,993 were filled. In other words, after registration had shaken out,
there was more than enough capacity for
all
who wanted courses at that level. It is
worth noting as well that students entering the University at the semester one
level
are, for the most part, limited to this narrow range of 100 level courses while both
continuing and new advanced entry students have completed prerequisites that give
them access to a wider range of courses.
While the recently introduced tuition penalty for course drops has had a significant
effect on reducing over-enrolment which resulted in subsequent course drops, a
continuing problem is timing. Specifically, UBC will be allowing their scholarship
students to commence fall registration in early June, and then the remaining new
students are integrated with the registration of upper level students in late June/early
July. Currently, our grade 12 students do not get a chance to register until about the
first week of August. Since many grade 12 students are choosing between these two
institutions, the opportunity to complete course selection at UBC much earlier in the
process results in these students committing to UBC because they have course spots
there.
. It was the unanimous recommendation of SCtJS (March 4, 1994) that the current
registration priority system be modified. In the following proposal,
new students
are
defined as those who are entering with BC Grade 12 or equivalent as their basis of
admission and those who are entering the University for the first time with no
transfer credit.
Recommendation
?
.
New students, as defined above, should retain their same relative priority within that
group but for their first semester of registration a constant would be added to their
current RPN such that the new students would be released to the telephone
registration system during the first five days of telephone registration.
Coincidentally, continuing students would also be released to telephone registration.
based on their RPN with the total number released on any given day determined by
the capacity of the telephone registration system.
Based on enrolment last year, the following pattern would be illustrative:
Day 1 - new students with an RPN = or> than 30;
Day 2- new students with an RPN between 26 and 29 inclusive;
Day 3- new students with an RPN between 20 and 25 inclusive;
Day 4- new students with an RPN between 18 and 19 inclusive;
Day 5- new students with an RPN between 0 and 17 inclusive.
The RPN ranges would be adjusted for any given entry semester so that the new
students are relatively evenly distributed over
the
first five days of the telephone
registration process.
It is proposed that this recommendation would take effect for the registration process
for the Fall Semester 94-3.
?
9
As set out in its reponsibilities, SCUS would continue to review
the
practices and
procedures with respect to the Registration Priority System.
9
.
S
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ?
MEMORANDUM
TO:
J.M. Munro, VP Academic ?
FROM: Walter Wattamaniuk
J. Osborne, AVP Academic
?
Director, Analytical Studies
R. Heath, Registrar
RE: Direct Entry Students ?
DATE: February 9, 1994
Last fall, the Registrar's Office faced the brunt of many complaints from newly
admitted secondary students (and their parents) about the scarcity of introductory
100 level course places at SFIJ due to full course sections.
At the suggestion of Ron Heath, Liny Chan and I decided to look at the transaction
records of all new direct entry B. C. secondar y
students who registered in 1993-3.
Our objective was to systematically try to describe and quantify some of the
problems they faced as they attempted to register in courses.
We found that on average the chances of success when attempting to add a course
at any given time were about one in five. Only one out of every 13 students was
able to get all their first choice courses without being denied entry to a course at
least once. The main reason was a shortfall of introductory level course places.
One-half of all introductor y
course places were filled before an
y
new secondary
students were allowed to register. Many of these course places were subsequently
released in the first three weeks of classes. However, at the time, because of their
unfamiliarity with the teleregistration system, the inability to get courses probably
caused a lot of frustration for students.
The 1993 SCIMO survey which was administered to students in November largely
supported the teleregistration evidence. It indicated that 79% of new secondary
students were able to get the number of courses they required but only 33% were
able to get all the specific courses they wanted. By contrast, these percentages were
83% and 51% for all students surveyed.
I expect that the new course drop policy will largely solve the problem of course
hoarding next fall. However this measure in itself will not be enough and if the
supply of introductory course places does not increase, students will continue to
experience problems with course availability, particularly since the enrollment
targets presently before SCAP will increase their numbers next fall.
I do not believe that we can continue on this course of action. Students presumably
make decisions to accept our offers of admission on the assumption that courses will
be available in their first semester of study. If new students continue to have
difficulty obtaining courses in their first semester at SFU, they will eventually
begin to reconsider our offers of admission. We stand in danger of gaining a
reputation similar to some colleges vis-a-vis course availability.
3.
2
Our options are fairly straightforward:
Increase the supply of introductory course places. This involves finding
additional resources and poses the problem of determining which specific
disciplines and courses to target for increases.
Reserve a minimum number of course places for secondary students.
•
Increase the registration priority for secondary students in their first semester
at SFU.
The last two options both involve a reallocation of teleregistration priority. Giving
new secondary students highest priority has the advantage of being easiest to
implement. It will also ensure that our very most senior students, who are close to
graduation and who also have high registration priority, will get the 100 level
courses they need in order to graduate. Unfortunately, continuing students who
have the lowest priority will have difficulty finding course places. Mitigating this
argument is the fact that continuing students are more teleregistration 'street-
wise", will persevere in their quest for specific courses and will eventually be able to
get places, albeit perhaps only after classes start in some cases.
A more detailed report follows.
cc. L. Chan, Analytical Studies
.
.
4.
3
0
?
THE SUPPLY OF INTRODUCTORY 100
LEVEL
COURSE PLACES AT SFU
We first identified all 100 level courses offered at
SF13 in 93-3 which did not require
any prerequisites and which had new secondary students registered in them. A
complete listing of the 93 courses is attached in Appendix A. For each course we
examined the enrollments on:
'Aug 2nd; the day prior to the first release of secondary students.
'End of Week One (Ewkl) of classes.
'End of Week Three (Ewk3) of classes.
Some observations:
1. There was a shortfall of course places prior to August 3rd.
'On August 2nd, out of the total supply of 17,400 course places, 8,300, or 48%
were filled. The students enrolled thus far had an RPN ^: 31 but
did not include
any secondary students (all secondary students had lower RPNs).
'Since students have discipline
and
scheduling preferences, it is not possible to
fill 100% of the course places. Historically, the maximum capacity is closer to
•
?
90%. This means that there were about 7,400 course places left for the
approximately 2,900 students with RPN:530 who subsequently attempted to
register. These students, of which 1,500 were new secondary students, each
required, on average, 3.5 courses or a total of 11,600 course places.
'This means that a potential short fall of about 2,750 places existed prior to
August 3rd.
'12% were held by new students with RM31
'58% were held by Yr2 continuing students with 31:5RPN:570
'22% were held by Yr3 continuing students with 71:5^RPN:5105
'8% were held by Yr4 continuing students with 106:5RPN:5105
3. Of the 8.300 filled course places prior to Au
gust
3rd about 1.100 course places
were subsequently released by Ewkl.
'Yr4 students dropped 170 course places (24% out of 700)
0
Yr3 dropped 300 course places (17% out of 1,800)
•
9
Yr2 dropped 600 course places, (12% out of 4,800)
'New students dropped 52 course places (5% out of 1,000)
4
4.
By Ewkl. 91% of all introductor
y
course places were filled (15.700 out of 17.400)
?
?
with 52 out of 93 courses filled at ^95% of capacity.
?
0
5.
By Ewk3. 86% of all introductor
y
course places were filled (15.000 of the 17.400)
with 20 out of 93 courses filled at ^:95% of capacity.
6.
The five disciplines secondar
y students had most difficult y
with insofar as full
courses were English. Philosoph
y,
Psy cholo gy
. Criminolog y , and Biosciences.
We looked at
all
transactions made by secondary students against each of the 93
courses between August 3rd and Ewkl. For each course we counted the number of
students who tried to register in the course unsuccessfull y
between August 3rd and
Ewkl. Figure 1 shows the forty courses with the highest course-full transactions.
For instance, 633 secondary students tried unsuccessfully to register in English 101
between August 3rd and Ewkl. 531 students tried unsuccessfully to register in
Psychology 100 and
were turned away.
31
m
i
ll'i4L1IXJ ?
iIAi3M I)
DO
We next looked at all teleregistration transactions made by 1,414 new secondary
students who registered in the 93 introductory 100 level courses between August
3rd and Ewkl.
We found that during this period each student on average:
*made 27.1 course transactions
*was able to successfully add 5.7 courses
*later dropped 1.5 courses
•
was successfully registered in 4.2 courses by Ewkl
*was denied entry 17.7 times because the desired course section was full.
was denied entry into 6.4 different courses because the course section(s) desired
was full
• made 2.2 unsuccessful transactions due to other reasons.
Specifically, we found that by Ewkl only 108 students out of 1,414 were able to
register in all their courses successfully; 177 students had been turned away from
one course; 159 students from 2 different courses; 162 students from three
different courses; 123 students from four different courses
and
the remaining 685
students from five or more courses. Figure 2 shows the distribution for
all
students.
0
5
O
?
RESPONSES TO THE 1993 SCIMO STUDENT SURVEY FROM
SECONDARY STUDENTS
The Fall, 1993 SCIMO survey was administered to students in November, 1993 and
identified
114
students who were new and who came directly from secondary school.
Their responses to the survey questions on course availability gave rise to the
following observations:
• The average number of courses registered in was
4.3.
• 21%
of new secondary students said they were unable to get the number of
courses they wanted. This percentage dropped to
16.4% for all students
surveyed. Most new secondary students wanted one additional course.
•
66% of new secondary students said that they were unable to get all the specific
courses they wanted. This percentage dropped to
48.7%
for all students
surveyed. Most new secondary students were unable to get
2-3
courses.
L
1'.
10.
APPENDIX A
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
TELEREG STATISTICS FOR INTRODUCTORY FIRST YEAR COURSES, FALL 1993
0
MaxE
Enroll
Aug 2nd
MaxE
ActE
i
MaxE
AQIE
Ewk-3
IXJUR
2-Aug
2-Aug
% Cap
Ewkl
Ewkl
% Cap
Ewk3
Ewk3
% Cap
ARCH101
261
120
46%
261
243
93%
291
240
82%
ARCH105
40
33
83%
40
39
98%
40
32
80%
BISC100
120
81
68%
120
117
98%
120
117
98%
BISC101
270
88
33%
270
264
98%
270
252
93%
CHEM101
225
71
32%
225
190
84%
225
187
83%
CHEM102
550
74
13%
623
532
85%
623
505
81%
CHEM115
460
55
12%
452
445
98%
452
421
93%
CHIN100
alum
45
23
51%
45
45
100%
45
44
98%
CMNS130
220
195
89%
211
217
103%
211
207
98%
CMPT1
100
67
67%
120
103
86%
100
96
96%
CMPT101
130
39
30%
140
137
98%
130
131
101%
CMPT103
150
100
67%
150
145
97%
150
139
93%
CNS160
48
50
104%
48
44
92%
48
46
96%
CRIM101
344
123
36%
339
321
95%
369
325
88%
CRIM104
113
94
83%
114
110
96%
114
104
91%
CRIM131
174
106
61%
169
161
95%
169
149
88%
CRIM151
101
49
49%
84
65
77%
84
56
67%
ECON102
256
43
17%
288
249
86%
288
233
81%
ENGL102
268
126
47%
264
257
97%
264
246
93%
ENGL103
224
118
53%
224
212
95%
224
200
89%
ENGL199
196
186
95%
186
180
97%
216
184
85%
FPA104
100
87
87%
100
87
87%
100
80
80%
FPA136
108
44
41%
108
92
85%
108
85
79%
FPA151
60
56
93%
60
60
100%
60
64
107%
FPA170
24
26
108%
24
19
79%
24
19
79%
FREN100
106
52
49%
106
73
69%
106
70
66%
GEOG100
250
94
38%
250
245
98%
250
234
94%
GEOG102
64
42
66%
64
61
95%
64
56
88%
GEOG112
64
56
88%
64
61
95%
64
57
89%
GEOG162
192
84
44%
192
179
93%
192
167
87%
GERM141
20
20
100%
25
20
80%
25
20
80%
HIST101
340
109
32%
340
297
87%
340
277
81%
APPENDIX A
?
7.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
TELEREG STATISTICS FOR INTRODUCTORY FIRST YEAR COURSES, FALL 1993
W
-MaxE
Enroll
Aug 2nd
MaxE
Act
ki
MaxE
Act
E
cXIJRSE
2-Aug
2-Aug
% Cap
Ewk
l
Ewkl
% Cap
Ewk3
Ewk3
% Cap
HIST146
36
36
100%
36
33
92%
36
34
94%
HIST151
136
105
77%
136
133
98%
136
125
92%
1&I
2Jg
JH261LJ
HUM161
30
31
103%
30
30
100%
30
26
87%
JAPN100
60
64
107%
60
56
93%
60
61
102%
KIN110
270
221
82%
260
253
97%
260
238
92%
KIN140
160
141
88%
152
148
97%
152
147
97%
K1N142
210
153
73%
231
223
97%
231
215
93%
K1N143
180
153
85%
170
165
97%
170
161
95%
LING100
280
76
27%
280
211
75%
280
195
70%
LING110
410
159
39%
400
325
81%
400
297
74%
MATH 100
300
76
25%
300
247
82%
300
216
72%
MATH110
285
76
27%
285
165
58%
285
148
52%
MATH151
430
39
9%
489
397
81%
489
389
80%
MATH 154
275
49
18%
275
254
92%
275
244
89%
v1ATH161
35
3
9%
35
13
37%
35
13
37%
MATH 19O
210
79
38%
210
125
60%
210
112
53%
PHIL100
192
103
54%
192
183
95%
180
170
94%
PHIL110
226
92
41%
219
204
93%
219
188
86%
PHIL150
85
37
44%
85
81
95%
85
74
87%
PHYS100
320
93
29%
330
265
80%
330
245
74%
PHYS120
250
24
10%
250
206
82%
250
188
75%
POL100
204
153
75%
204
198
97%
204
194
95%
iawi
Lr
PSYC100
604
242
40%
536
584
109%
536
568
106%
PSYC102
264
142
54%
240
232
97%
240
212
88%
j1!6
PSYC180
136
122
90%
120
126
105%
120
115
96%
RUSS100
40
29
73%
40
38
95%
40
35
88%
Isom
Ill
SA101
126
87
69%
112
112
100%
142
115
81%
SA150
297
130
44%
269
279
104%
269
263
98%
STAT101
45
36
80%
55
40
73%
55
34
62%
STAT103
200
98
49%
205
144
70%
230
146
63%
FNS100
179
140
78%
174
166
95%
174
156
90%
TOTAL ?
17374 ?
8294 48%
?
17334 ?
15718 ?
91% ?
17522 ?
14993 ?
86%
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