TCC corrects registration woes, counselor says
by Carol Vanpell
reporter
Students may be in for more surprises when they register for summer classes, NE counselors reported recently.
Adam Baugh and Richard Vela, NE counselors, presented Minimizing Your Registration Frustration April 8 to help students with the administrative software used in the registration process for the first time during spring registration.
TCC Connect, the Web registration portion of Colleague, the program from Datatel, caused several frustrations for students registering for this semester’s classes.
During especially heavy enrollment time, the system was kicking them out if their session took too long, freezing, not letting them register for classes and even blocking them from logging in if they tried to enter the system too many times after being knocked off.
“ The good news is our system support team has fixed many of the problems,” Baugh said.
The first good news is that the open classes screen will now be a “live” count, Baugh said. Last semester, this glitch caused many students to try to register for classes that were already full, lengthening their online time and shortening their patience.
During the spring semester registration period, students discovered the system would not recognize prerequisites, would not allow students to drop classes, would not recognize TASP-exempt status and would not show payment due dates.
Baugh said students and faculty were frustrated, and the district computer support employees were unable to respond when the new system was overloaded and crashed.
“ With summer registration, we will see how many problems were fixed,” he said.
The support team has worked diligently to fix all the bugs and glitches, Baugh said.
“ We want your registration experience to be a good one,” he said.
Vela conducted a live demonstration of the registration process in the second part of the workshop.
Explaining the benefits of the new system, Vela said students can now manage their education experience online.
“ Future benefits might include winning a trip to the Super Bowl,” he said.
Not really—Vela admitted he was kidding.
“ After you register, check your class schedule day, time, campus location, semester dates and course for errors,” Baugh said.
Payment schedules are available online this semester.
“ Remember, you are responsible for paying by your deadline,” he said.
Students will need to pay by the Thursday of the week the payment is due because the college is closed Friday and Saturday during the summer session, Baugh said.
Audience member Richard Cates, NE academic adviser, offered advice on the Datatel system.
“ Don’t use the back button—the system does not like it and will kick you out,” he said.
Any new computer system will have problems, the counselors said. During this transition process, counselors are available on all four campuses to help students and faculty through this difficult period, Baugh said.
For assistance with registration problems and questions, students and faculty can call 817-515-5660, Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m., or send e-mail after hours and on weekends to Cathie.Jackson@tccd.edu.
Last Updated: 4/21/2004
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