Ohio University's online class-scheduling system failed to recognize completed prerequisite requirements for almost 5,000 students slated to register for classes yesterday, blocking seniors and others with priority registration from getting into some courses.
A computer program that inputs every student's completed coursework into the online system failed to do so two weeks ago, but the problem was not detected until today, the first day of registration, said associate registrar Patrick Beatty. This blocked students from registering for classes with prerequisites: for example, a student with 100-level Spanish credit would not be allowed into 200-level Spanish because the computer system would not recognize the completed prerequisite.
OU computer technicians were running the computer program again last night and expected registration to function normally when scheduling at 7 a.m. today.
The 5,867 students slated to register yesterday comprise 22 percent of all students, according to data from the registrar's office. Those affected include 1,778 seniors with 184 or more credit hours, 2,818 graduate students and 630 students with disabilities. The 208 Honors Tutorial College students allowed to register yesterday were unaffected because their prerequisites are waived entirely, and the 433 College of Osteopathic Medicine students allowed to register yesterday were unaffected because they schedule largely through their own college.
Beatty said students experiencing problems could call the registrar's office at 740-593-4324 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and someone would register them manually. The registrar had received about forty calls by yesterday afternoon.
Students who were blocked from registering yesterday and whose classes are filled up today will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis
Beatty said.
Students are assigned a registration time based on the number of credit hours they have received, and those with more credit hours are allowed to register sooner than those with fewer. High school students taking college classes are the last group allowed to schedule on Nov. 13.
Beatty said because the computer problem was detected on the first day of registration, he did not expect the online registration to be overloaded today. 17
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