Due to the recent campus enrollment increase this semester, some students signed up for a waitlist when registering for their classes.

However, IU Southeast is looking to expand the waitlist for future semesters.

Brittany Hubbard, director of Financial Aid and interim director of the Academic Success Center, said when the waitlist program was first implemented, it was very successful.

There were 1,741 students who requested a waitlist, and 1,354 were placed in a course.

Hubbard said they had transfer students request waitlists.

“Other IU campuses use them, so we decided to try it,” Hubbard said. “The waiting list was a great benefit for students and very successful.”

Hubbard said numbers indicated there was a 78 percent success rate.
She said she attributes the success of the waitlist program to Jennifer Myers, records specialist for the Registrar.

“Jennifer did a great job working with the students,” Hubbard said. “She called many of them and advised them so they could get the course section they needed.”

Hubbard said she is also looking to expand the waitlist for other available courses on campus.

The main reason student waitlist requests were not being fulfilled was due to time conflicts with other courses.

Further complications involved unit overload — which exceeded the maximum for the term — and dual enrollment in another section of the same course.

Hubbard said most of the faculty was satisfied with having a waitlist, and they are looking to expand the program for spring 2012.

Diane Wille, professor of psychology, said the waiting list helps faculty and staff in that it allows them to know whether or not additional sections need to be added for the department.

“We use the waiting list to find out what the demand for a class is,” Wille said. “Without it, we don’t know if we have to add additional sections. The waiting list is designed to better serve the students.”

Wille said there were 12 students in the Psychology Department who were on a waitlist.

However, only one or two did not get into a class.

“We’ll probably offer at least a couple new sections for courses,” Wille said.

By JOHN DIDOMENICO

Staff

jdidomen@ius.edu