Registration: Fordham’s very own Hunger Games, where the strong come out on top with the classes they want, and the weak are left scrambling for whatever is left over.

Registration has never been an easy time. It’s not easy for us to wake up to register for classes when the sun is just peeping out, and it’s not easy for Fordham’s system to accommodate thousands of students who try to outdo one another to see who can log into My.Fordham.edu the fastest.  

Fall Semester 2013: Fordham tried to have both campuses register simultaneously, but the system simply could not handle it. Instead of trying to address the technical problems to improve the system for future generations, another way to register was sought out. 

Spring Semester 2014: The system, still traumatized from the previous semester, just gave out and crashed, and freshmen spent hours in line on the eighth floor of Lowenstein, being registered manually by the deans. 

And the administration, still troubled by the inefficacies of the system, have found no solid solution that could satisfy everyone. 

Because we’re a smaller school, Lincoln Center (LC) students register first, which has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to registration. 

Advantage: We get to register for classes on our campus before anyone else. We get priority over every class taught here. 

Disadvantage: We don’t get to register for classes at Rose Hill until Rose Hill students register. 

At first, it seems fair, right? Students get to register for classes at their home campus first, getting priority over class offerings and minimizing the risk of students being locked out of classes on their home turf.

But Lincoln Center students can’t register for any class at Rose Hill; in other words, we’re shut out of many classes that we otherwise want—and NEED—to take. 

Rose Hill is a bigger campus, with a bigger population and a wider variety of class offerings. Lincoln Center, the smaller campus, doesn’t have nearly as many classes—or even a variety—and many students have to take a majority of their classes for their majors or minors at Rose Hill. So, really, Lincoln Center students are just getting the shorter end of the stick because first-come first-served does not mean the same thing as first-come better-served.

The School of Professional and Continuing Studies (PCS) has placeholders for Lincoln Center students, so that students have an allotted number of spaces in PCS classes. Why can’t Fordham adapt a practice they already use and apply it to Rose Hill and Lincoln Center students? 

Fordham could have a specific number of placeholders for Lincoln Center students in Rose Hill classes. (We’re not allowed to take core classes anywhere besides our home campus anyway, so core classes wouldn’t be affected in any way.) That way, Rose Hill students still have priority for classes at Rose Hill, but Lincoln Center students would have a fighting chance of getting a seat. 

Save us a seat at Rose Hill. That’s all we’re asking for.