Registration Access Number: check.

Registration start date and time: check.

Although students have a copy of these from advisers in hand when the clock strikes the time listed on the sheet, they are still unable to get into the classes they planned.

Many classes have full sections and students must change their proposed schedule and either wait to take the course the next semester or not take it at all.

Diane Rupp, assistant registrar at the Enrollment Services Center, plans the scheduling of classes for each term. While her office deals with when classes will be offered, it is up to the departments and colleges to decide what to do from there.

“Departments and colleges review the offerings and place requests to add, remove or change the existing course offering schedule,” Rupp said. “Each department and college establish their own process for review and change.”

Iowa State offers about 17,000 course sections in 3,800 courses each spring and fall semester.

While Facilities Planning and Management is in charge of assigning rooms for each class and section, it is the university’s course availability committee, chaired by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, whose responsibility it is to determine if any changes need to be made to courses offered and take actions according to available resources.

The committee includes important representatives from each college and other key function areas including the Registrar’s Office, Rupp said.

Arne Hallam, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said it’s hard to predict how many students are going to want to take a certain class each semester. One must look at who took the class the semester before.

“Right now we’re adding another Math 267 class because there are 65 students on a waiting list,” Hallam said.

Although waiting lists are an issue, Hallam said the college creates more sections in situations with waiting lists or gets another instructor for the course.

A large issue is that it is difficult to find rooms to put classes. Hallam just moved a chemistry class from Gilman Hall to Hoover Hall, which allows a much bigger lecture class.

Hallam and his office also take into consideration the ability of faculty members to take on more students in a section or whether they are an experienced professor or a graduate student.

Hallam said he encountered trouble in the fall semester when he ran out of TAs for the bigger classes offered, but instead of using the graduate students who weren’t available, he hired undergraduate TAs instead.

Unless it is a general education requirement, Hallam said the college will do what it has to in cases where people need to take a certain course or section to move on.

“We try really hard to get everybody in a class if it’s required,” Hallam said. “Add or increase a section — we try to get them in one way or another.”