Registration for spring classes will be here soon, and some students are beginning to worry about whether they will get the classes that they need.

Registration for classes is based on the priority the student falls under. Some students are able to register earlier than others because of their class level or because of special needs that they have that require an earlier registration.

According to the registration guide, the order of registration priority is disabled students, retention programs, graduating seniors, seniors, freshmen attending orientation, freshmen, classified graduates, juniors, and lastly sophomores.

Some of the retention programs included in the second priority group are athletes, cheerleaders, debate team members, marching band members, and resident advisers.

Shirley Uplinger, vice president of student affairs, said that other groups could qualify for second priority status if they meet all of the specifications set by the Academic Senate.

According to Academic Senate policy 91-111, to be eligible for second priority the program must offer tutoring, group work, or other academic support services, and the requirements of the program must demand that students register in particular courses.

"In order for the program to have merit every group is unable to have secondary priority." Uplinger said, adding that if everyone had a high priority then there would be no reason to have priority registration.

If eligibility for priority registration exceeds 7 percent of the total enrollment, the issue will be brought back to the Academic Senate the following semester, according to AS 91-111.

Uplinger said this means that the Academic Senate would have to come up with a new way to determine eligibility for priority registration if too many students and groups qualify.

Once a group is qualified to receive secondary priority, it must still meet many requirements to be able to use CASPER during that registration time.

The student must remain an active participant during the semester, have a GPA of at least 2.0 during the previous semester, and must be making satisfactory progress toward their degree. After the students' first semester at Sac State they must have also completed their English Composition and quantitative reasoning requirements, or be enrolled in those courses.

After second priority is priority by class level.

Registrar Anita Hall said the priority is listed in this order to keep students from competing for the same courses. It is assumed that freshman will not be registering for the same courses as graduating seniors or classified graduates so they can register at around the same time, she said.

English 20 is considered sophomore English, but often sophomores are unable to get into the class because they have the lowest registration priority and there are many juniors and seniors trying to get the same course. This fall, English 20 was made available to freshman by because the only prerequisite for the course is English 1A, which can be taken in the first semester of college.

The registration priority was set long before Hall started working for Sac State. She said that it was here when she was a student so she had to go through the same things, but she said that there are people looking into ways to alleviate the pressure on English 20 students and re-establish it as a sophomore course.

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