Live registration to be instituted during registration for fall classes

Live registration was one of the topics discussed at the Hoya Roundtable event on Jan. 17. The registrar’s office first announced that live registration will be implemented in April when students register for the Fall 2019 semester in a schoolwide email sent out on Dec. 6.

During the event, College Dean Marlene Canlas wanted to remind students to meet with their deans before registration opens. “As long as you are invested in doing that work,” Canlas said, “it’s going to be a seamless process.”

The change is the first step in the process of updating Georgetown’s student information system from the outdated Banner 8 system to the more modern Banner 9. The second stage will culminate in the replacement of MyAccess with the Banner 9 system — a phase that will begin in Fall 2019 and is predicted to be complete by Spring 2020.  

“Transitioning to live registration allows us to upgrade to Banner 9, thereby providing students with an accessible and modern user interface with upgraded navigation, new functionality across the enterprise and the ability to run Banner in any browser,” the registrar’s email read.

Georgetown’s custom pre-registration system requires a significant time commitment for manual entry and often produces flawed results which do not reflect a student’s actual schedule. Additionally, in 2020, Ellucian, the company which operates Banner, will no longer support Banner 8, so “maintaining pre-registration is not an option,” the Registrar’s email stated.

The new live registration system will work in the same way the current add/drop system does, where students will receive immediate results without the pre-registration system mediating choices. This will help ensure students have a full schedule and, due to the immediacy of results, will provide more time for students to acquire the necessary course materials before the first day of class. Students will also be able to enroll in open spots or add themselves to waitlists in real time. Lastly, the system will allow registration to be completed entirely from a mobile device.

The Banner 9 system will also provide new services to students such as an “Advising Student Profile” to aid students and advisors in making the best decision for academic success. Additionally, a “Student Self-Service” feature will be added, which will include various scheduling and degree-planning functions. This should make the registration process easier, allowing students to make smarter, more practical decisions as they plan the course of their four years here at Georgetown.

To ensure students have ample time before the opening of their registration time slot, the schedule of classes will be released on March 18, allowing students three weeks to meet with their deans and plan their schedules. Registration time slots will be allotted to give priority to students who are nearer graduation. Within each class level, times will be allotted in alphabetical groupings, the order of which will rotate on a semester basis to be as fair as possible. Some spots may also be reserved in classes concerning majors to ensure that the needs of all students are met. Online tutorials as well as training sessions will be offered before Spring registration.

Canlas closed this encouragement with one final thought: “I think that the benefits definitely outweigh the costs but we’re just gonna have to sort of change the culture a little bit in how we prepare for live registration.”