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After feedback, honors students still to get priority registration

CORRECTION Tuesday 4/4 9 a.m.: Students currently being recruited for Miami's University Honors Program (the Class of 2021, entering in fall 2017) will receive the same registration privileges as current Honors students. The Class of 2022 (entering in fall 2018), not the Class of 2021, will experience the planned changes to Honors registration.

After receiving feedback from students enrolled in the University Honors Program, last week, Provost Phyllis Callahan revoked planned changes to the university's registration processes that would have limited Honors students' registration privileges.

As it stands, all Honors students are able to register in BannerWeb several days before the general student body, with only disabled students, veterans and student-athletes registering ahead of them. This, university registrar Dave Sauter told The Student, inflated the number of students granted priority registration to include nearly a quarter of Miami's students and prompted Miami's Associated Student Government (ASG) to ask the university for a review of registration processes.

The planned changes, which were announced in an email to Honors students on March 16, would have allowed UHP students to register in BannerWeb 10 minutes prior to the time ticket for their class (first-year, sophomore, junior or senior, as determined by number of credit hours earned), a procedure called "priority cohort registration."

In the current model, a first-year honors student is able to register before a senior not in the UHP -- and that's the way it will stay.

"Because students currently enrolled were told when they were first admitted to the [Honors] Program that they had overall priority registration (meaning, regardless of their academic standing, they were allowed to register before general registration opened), we decided to allow the overall priority registration practice to continue for the current Honors students," Callahan told The Miami Student in an email.

Sophomore Honors student Jessi Zachman said the decision, which was announced in an email last Monday from UHP director David Pennock, came as a relief.

"I'm happy that [priority registration] came back, because it's a major reason why I joined the Honors program in the first place," Zachman said. "Having it gone and not really knowing why was frustrating. Now that it's back, I can exhale a little easier."

Fellow Honors sophomore Nick Fendinger echoed that sentiment.

"I just feel relieved that the initial promise the honors program gave me when I enrolled as an honors student is returning," Fendinger said. "Having priority registration was a huge selling point when I initially made my college decision and picked up the extra academic requirements to be an honors student."

However, Pennock said, incoming Honors students in the Class of 2021 can't expect the same as Fendinger and Zachman.

"It is my understanding that the changes in priority registration for Honors students will be implemented for the class entering fall 2018," Pennock said. "I think [the change] just shows that Miami is focused on students and is willing to listen and respond to student concerns."

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Registration begins this morning and continue through Friday for students with disabilities, veterans and student-athletes. BannerWeb scheduling slots for Honors students will start at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, April 5.

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