The Educational Policies Committee started the semester by creating a new subcommittee and discussing the hardships of first-week registration at its meeting on Sept. 10.
The EPC decided to put together a subcommittee to determine the necessity of reclassifying some mixed media, or hybrid, classes.
According to the chair of the EPC and liberal arts professor, Elizabeth Adams, a hybrid course could be one that meets regularly on campus but holds a couple of meetings over the internet, such as through WebCT.
The new subcommittee is responsible for providing a formal definition for ‘hybrid course,’ and determining whether a separate category of courses should be created to designate such courses in the schedule of classes and in SOLAR, just as categories exist for traditional and online classes. The distinction will not be made in the university catalogue.
‘The issue here is truth in advertising,’ said Richard Horowitz, a history professor and member of the hybrid subcommittee.
‘It would be easier,’ said 23-year-old Zaide Reyes, of the proposed hybrid course designation. ‘So you could know your schedule better.’
English major, Christian Cardenas, agreed saying the proposed designation would make a course ‘easier to schedule around for work.’
During the meeting, the committee members also opened an informal discussion on revamping the registration process during the first week of school.
Under the current system for class registration during the first week of school, enacted about four years ago, a student must obtain an add code from the professor in order to join the course.
Before the add codes, according to Adams, students were ‘shopping around’ for classes, adding and dropping courses to the point that it became difficult to tell who was in which class.
‘We solved that problem and created a new one,’ said Adams.
The concern now is over first-time freshmen, transfer and international students who may not be familiar with the add-code system and unsure how to add a class during the first week of school.
Some of the options informally voiced include re-opening first-week registration, allowing registration during the first week only for certain students or courses, or leaving registration open until the first class meeting.
According to Nick Thomas, a 23-year-old transfer student currently in his second semester at CSUN, the add-code policy creates a lot of waiting.
‘You ask the teacher for the add code and a lot of the time you’re waiting for classes you don’t even know if you’ll need the book for or if you can get in,’ he said.
However, Thomas opposes open registration during the first week.
‘It would be a free-for-all,’ Thomas said. ‘Everyone would be adding indiscriminately. All the classes would fill up.’
Changing registration procedures will be discussed further during the next EPC meeting on Sept. 24 in University Hall, room 211 at 2:00 p.m. The committee generally meets every other Wednesday to discuss curriculums of general education classes, new classes, changes to existing courses and educational policy.
