As students register for classes, faculty and staff have noticed certain classes filling up faster than others — classes that focus on sex, wine and … English?

Laura Doering, associate registrar, said English 302 and 314 fill up the fastest, along with HDFS 276, or human sexuality.

Doering said she believes the reason English 302 and 314 fill up so quickly is they are required for students in many majors.

“English 302 and 314 are usually full by the time the seniors are through registering,” Doering said. “If we are lucky, they will still be open the first day or two of junior registration.”

Another popular course is HRI 383, or Introduction to Beverages.

Stewart Burger, professor of the class and coordinator of special events for hotel, restaurant and institution management, said the class is enjoyable for students, but may be more complicated than they anticipate.

The class meets once a week for two hours. Burger lectures for an hour or longer, and then the class samples beverages based on the topics discussed. He said it is not a class to take if students expect an easy A.

“This is a big industry, and it goes back to early times,” Burger said.

“There is a body of important information that students need to know. They need to have the terminology and history.”

Burger said the class involves a lot of reading and has a detailed course packet. He said to enroll in the class, students must be 21 years of age or older and have permission of the instructor.

Ann Farni, business undergraduate program coordinator, said she has noticed business students having some difficulty registering for classes they need.

“There is always a problem during registration,” she said. “By the second week of October through Thanksgiving break, more students are coming in to our office and asking questions. We are popular during this time of year.”

Farni said there are many steps students can take to try to schedule the classes they need.

“The issue is need versus want, and we try to work with the students to meet their needs,” she said.

Farni said it is also important for students to try to add the class they want to register for even if it is full.

“This helps us to know what demands still need to be met, so maybe then we can request additional seats or add sections of a class if necessary,” she said.

Doering agreed it is important students make class requests known.

“Students need to talk with their advisers, especially if they do not have a complete schedule,” she said.

“We are very committed to helping students get full schedules that will apply to their degree audit.

“Also, by attempting to register for a class even if it is full, students are put on a waiting list, which is our way of calculating unmet demands,” she said. “The more the students can communicate with us, the better university data will be.”

Doering said she does not believe the budget cuts have had an effect on the number of classes offered.

“We started out this semester with the same number of total seats offered as we did in spring 2003, so budget cuts have not affected us,” she said.

She said the fact that the freshman class is smaller than usual this year has also helped alleviate registration problems. She said the majority of the problems are in the junior and senior classes because of record enrollments during their freshman years.