Trial & error Students’ existing enrollment anxiety heightened by MyMadison outage

from ENROLLMENT, page 1

The early bird gets the worm Students’ enrollment appointments are assigned based on their cumulative credit hours already earned and don’t include credits in progress, according to the Office of the Registrar’s website. For example, rising seniors or students with over 90 credit hours could sign up for classes beginning Monday at 7:30 a.m. On the opposite end of the spectrum, freshmen with 0-27 credit hours can sign up starting Thursday at 6:30 a.m, and the class of 2027 will enroll starting June 21.

Priority enrollment is granted to special student groups, like students in the Honors College. Ginny Cramer, associate director of communications and deputy spokesperson, said in an email, “There was not a significant change in the number of students receiving priority enrollment appointments for fall 2023 which did not impact the demand on MyMadison at any given time.”

Celeste Boseman, a junior studio art and art education major, said she had one of the first enrollment time slots available — Monday at 6:30 a.m., an hour before the rest of students that day due to her status in the Honors College. Boseman said she had an overall positive experience but struggled to fit in the classes she needed to fulfill her requirements during her last traditional semester, as she’ll be student-teaching next spring.

In fact, Boseman said, one of the Physical Principles courses she sought out to complete her final requirement for the General Education curriculum already had zero seats available when she logged into MyMadison for her appointment. She said she tried to satisfy this requirement for the past four to five semesters, but either class sections she managed to get a spot in were “administratively dropped” with no professor attached to teach them, or there weren’t any seats open.

“It was kind of just upsetting because [with] all of the other slots that fill that area, I don’t necessarily need a lab, so I wouldn’t want to take something that I don’t need,” Boseman said. “I don’t have the option to take it later on … so that’s one major struggle that I’ve had consistently throughout enrollment.”

Boseman said the ability to track how many seats are left open in a class helps when navigating which sections of a course will be available by the time one’s appointment arrives, as do waitlists. However, when she tried to help her friends who enrolled Tuesday morning, MyMadison’s “Student Center button didn’t even show up” to direct them to the page to enroll, Boseman said. Spreading out appointment times more would be a potential solution to help reduce the demand on MyMadison all at once, she added.

‘A little trepidatious’

With news of Tuesday’s MyMadison outage spreading across campus, several sophomores who spoke to The Breeze said the prospect of another outage during their Wednesday enrollment appointments raised concerns.

Gene Leggett, a history major, said he tried to send his class preferences to MyMadison’s shopping cart Tuesday morning ahead of his enrollment appointment Wednesday. “It took forever to load just a search bar,” Leggett said, and the General Education courses he looked for were full or not offered. With these circumstances, Leggett said he felt “a little trepidatious” about how his appointment would go and planned to enroll said. “I won’t be stressed like, ‘Oh my gosh, my internet broke.’ OK, whatever, I’m already guaranteed my spot.”

On the other hand, Morris said she had previous issues signing up for classes, with the system running slowly or sections filling up, leaving her with a lopsided schedule. Looking ahead for the next semester, Morris said, she has to reapply for the nursing program in addition to picking up an additional minor or major to maintain a full-time course load, and she said navigating her choices has been a challenge.

“I’m so stressed about it,” Morris said. “[Advisers] kind of give you advice, and then you just have to figure it out on your own. So, it’s like if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re kind of in a tough situation.” in classes that aren’t completely necessary for his academic requirements but are enough for him to continue as a fulltime student (12 credits).

Despite students’ claims of system errors or slow speeds, Cramer said in her email that “IT did not experience any system issues with the previous enrollment period” and students who experience issues with the system are encouraged to report them to the IT Help Desk. Cramer also said MyMadison will eventually be phased out and replaced with new software through the Reengineering Madison plan. Some of the plan’s goals include fostering more efficient operations and communication with the JMU community in regards to data and software on campus.

Graphic design major Sophie Parrish said many of her program’s classes only offer one section in each course, so when those classes fill up, there aren’t many alternatives. Parrish said half the classes she planned to take were no longer available after Tuesday morning’s enrollment rush. Like Leggett, Parrish said she had to adjust accordingly to find courses that will keep her on track to graduate on time, even if they weren’t part of the plan she was recommended to follow.

Jasmine Thompson and Alyssa Morris are both sophomore nursing majors, but their enrollment situations present different scenarios. Thompson was already admitted into the nursing program, which she said would reduce her stress heading into her Wednesday enrollment appointment.

“I like how we’re in certain sections, and all I need to do is get on and enroll then I’m guaranteed a spot,” Thompson

“IT works to ensure the university’s technology will support the requirements of heavy load periods like pre-registration,” Cramer said. “While the technology can handle the demand, there are sometimes changes required to support new usage patterns and processes. IT works closely with the Office of the Registrar to ensure their requirements are supported.”

Many students who spoke to The Breeze said they hope JMU implements changes to make enrollment an easier process and prevent future technological difficulties moving forward. Nevertheless, enrollment’s unpredictability remains at the forefront of students’ minds.

“I definitely think they should make it where less people should be able to enroll at the same time,” Thompson said. “I get it, they want to try to make it fair, but that’s not even fair because like half the people’s things break and then they don’t get anything anyway.”

Zoe Mowery contributed to this report.