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Glitch causes havoc at registrar's office


A system error in the University's computer-operated registration system, discovered Monday, resulted in a temporary class enrollment free-for-all, and later, invalidated 1,200 requests to drop/add.

The glitch allowed students who because of low GPA, lack of professional status or hours completed, to pre-register for classes that they would not regularly be eligible for.

After the problem was discovered, the registrar's office froze the system, preventing students from dropping and adding classes or paying tuition on Monday and Tuesday.

The malfunction has resulted in the re-processing of 31,973 pre-registration forms submitted to date.

Also all drop/add requests submitted from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday were made invalid because they were filed during the system error, said associate registrar Bonnie Wilcox of the 1,200 students that utilized drop/add Monday. These students will be contacted by the registrar's office to notify them of the error and answer questions they have about their registration.

Otherwise, students do not need to do anything additional, and — though students will have to wait a little longer to get find out what classes they got — the re-processed schedules will be available online Wednesday night.

Wilcox suggested that the correction of the problem will free up seats in several classes and if students found a class full on Monday, that they re-try later in the week.

"After the pre-registration requests are re-run, students might find that they were scheduled for classes they wanted because all the unqualified students could have freed up room for qualified students," Wilcox said.

Wilcox said she expects pre-registration schedules and billing statements to be available online and over the phone tonight, and priority drop/add and tuition services would be available Thursday.

As of Tuesday, University officials still do not know what caused the error, but they do not suspect foul play.

"We probably lost a day or two," Wilcox said. "That sounds like a lot, but it should allow plenty of time for students to make adjustments."

Margaret Cole, senior office specialist in the University's record department, said she's called more than 20 of the students whose drop/add requests were invalidated to notify them of the error.

"Most students have been very positive," said Cole, adding that some students had already called to ask questions about the problem. "Most of them were already aware of the problem."

Wilcox said she is more concerned with finding a solution to the problem.

"I want students to know that we apologize for the error," Wilcox said. "We are still researching to find what caused the problem."

Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.


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