So here I am, rather, here we are, once again, registering students at the college. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with several colleagues and the consensus is that we can be more efficient with this registration process or, we can be doing better things with our time, such as working on syllabi.
On the one hand, I like and appreciate the opportunity to be in one room with all of you. Sure beats DWFDW.
On the other hand, I am concerned that while we enjoy the company of each other (a priceless experience, if you ask me) we may be doing ourselves and our students a disservice. I feel that we’ve all been reduced to being gears of an antiquated or archaic system. I’m talking about both students and teachers.
I know this is old news so, here’s my question:
What can we do and what should we do to transform this registration experience?
One idea that Chris (Sabino) and I brainstormed was to take faculty out of room 404 and just have students register online. (Wasn’t this the reason for going to PeopleSoft? To automate the enrollment system? And yet we are still enrolling as if we are using SPAS?)
Faculty could then be in their offices working on syllabi and meeting with students that have specific questions about our respective programs. Yes, we’d all have access to quick enroll. This would be a better use of our time (teachers and students).
I believe students keep depending on faculty because they know come rain, shine, sleet, or snow we will be at the college to look-up courses on their behalf. Why are we reduced to typists? I’ve simply been a query specialist or a U-Pass magician these past few days and it must change.
How shall we institute change so that next year at this time we are truly serving our community? I’m left wondering.
The Harold Lounge 
It’s funny. As much as I gripe about registration, I do like the interaction with students, and of course my fellow faculty. Something I’ve been doing (thanks to watching a certain phy. sci. prof) is getting students to log into my.ccc and, if possible, register themselves. I do this during the semester with many of my students, at the very least helping them retrieve their username and creating a password.
But as Ivan and I chatted about today (and PhiloDave and I yesterday, I think), we could serve our students from our offices. We should try the experiment of emptying out 404 and letting students fend for themselves, especially returning students.
Another issue has to do with the restrictions for students registering themselves. Several did not have access to my.ccc despite having an ID number. This confuses me. Also, peoplesoft has a place for access codes. This should definitely be enabled so dev. ed. students, and others with restrictions, can register from any computer, anywhere. We have to change with the times instead of being trapped, in this case, in a room with outdated computers and limited seating.
I, too, enjoy meeting with the students and engaging with faculty. What I don’t like is the mandatory nature of registration – the mandatory nature of many requirements, suggesting that we will not fulfill our duties as professors. We have salaried postions and are not hourly employees.
It is as if every hour we devote to our duties is not accounted for by administration. Many, if not most, of us devote more hours to our positions than is recognized by administration. They may be aware of how much time we expend in our jobs, but it does not seem to be recognized when counting up the number of hours needed to justify paying us for one or two week’s work before classes begin.
As faculty, we need more empowerment over the “requirements” of our positions. We write on this blog; we discuss with each other; we voice our feelings to the administration – yet little happens. Collectively, we should be more steadfast in our concerns.
Procedures are changing now and there are some valuable changes happening. As faculty, we should gather forces and be more outwardly vocal, letting the powers-that-be recognize the amount of time we dedicate to our students, the college, the district and the community.
We may want to actually count the number of hours we spend on college teaching & activities, so that we “prove” our accountablity. Begin by documenting the number of hours you spend on the weekends, as well as during the week. We can play the numbers game, too.
Yet it is a sad state of affairs that we need to “prove” our accountability. Perhaps we need to work on establishing our importance within the system, so that our concerns are valued.
Great handle (sound of applause).
Thanks, PhiloDave. Wish I could take credit for the moniker. It is actually the title of a book by Ken Macrorie, published a number of decades ago. It’s an oldie but a goodie.
Sadly, a small group of faculty has made freedom and self-monitoring impossible for the large majority. There have always been some who simply don’t complete their registration hours, sign-in and then take off, say they are in their offices and aren’t, and spend their time in 404 doing whatever it is they are doing, which apparently is not helping students.
That being said, I would like to be able to register students from my office and advise students interested in my specific program, myself. I think we should fight for 20 hours in our offices and 10 hours in the pit. I have no problem accounting for my time, signing in and out, clocking in and out, whatever they need to prove that I am there and working. Just remember, if we get this and some faculty are found to be slacking, then we will lose it again.