Letters to the Chronicle

SPIRE process for registration clarified

Thank you for your recent article on the new SIS system (Oct. 11). However, there was an error in your article about the timing of access to SPIRE for pre-registration that may cause serious concern for students and advisors. You stated that students will initially have only a half-hour to register. This is the correct situation:

Each student is assigned an "appointment window"; the length of the window depends on the student's degree credits, so seniors are given a longer period which starts sooner then freshmen. The earliest window starts Nov. 14, the shortest window starts Nov. 26 at noon. The longest period is 21 days and the shortest is nine days. Once a student's window opens, it stays open until Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. when pre-registration for all students is over. A new window opens every half-hour during most work days between Nov. 14 and 25.

We must "ramp on" students to the system in this manner to spread the registration activity over the entire period. The system cannot handle all 25,000 students at the same time. Also, those students closest to graduation must have first access to course seats.

HEIDI DOLLARD
project manager,
Student Information System