The Keene State College Registrar Office has started a new incentive so that KSC students will register on time within the two-week time frame of March 26 to April 6.
Interim Registrar Barbara Cormier said that any student who applies for courses for the fall 2018 semester will be in a drawing to receive a $100 VISA gift card. Along with registering for classes Cormier said that any student who brings in a nonperishable food item in that time frame will be put into the drawing again and be even more eligible for the gift card.
Cormier said the hope of the incentive is to create a new tone at KSC when it comes to registering for classes.
Cormier said, “The registrar’s office has been talking for awhile about changing the tone and the role we play in our office so we started talking about encouraging students to register on time.” Cormier said sometimes students will not register for courses during that time frame for a variety of reasons, this leads to the student getting a late fee of ten dollars and neither the registrar office nor students want to have to be paying a late fee for not signing up for classes. Cormier said that last semester alone over 300 students received a late fee for signing up for classes after the two-week time span of course registration.
There are many reasons why a student may be signing up for a class late said Cormier and added that sometimes the reasons are out of the student’s control. “Sometimes there is a financial hold on a student’s account which prevents them for signing up, sometimes they were required to meet with an advisor and did not do so and can’t register, sometimes they don’t realize that they weren’t signed up for the class even though they have been sitting in it for weeks,” said Cormier.
Cormier said the goal of the VISA card incentive is twofold. Cormier said the first reason is to encourage students to stay on top of planning for what classes they need or want to take, the other goal is to reinforce the behavior that is wanted.
Cormier said students registering on time is not only beneficial for the student but also for professors because they can get a good idea of how many are in the class and use that information to build what their class will look like.
Junior Zachary Howe is graduating this December and said he thinks the incentive to register for classes early is great. “I always register on time so it would be nice to be appreciated for committing. It is unfortunate that they have to make incentives for things they should be doing. I’m sure the school has tried other things and this is the idea that they think will work best,” said Cormier.
Senior Thomas Davis said even though he is graduating this year and won’t see the incentive in effect, he sees it as a great idea because it pushes students to be on time. “If you don’t do it then you are forfeiting the reward. Those who put in the work get rewarded,” said Davis.
Cormier said an important tool for all students is the Student Planner and Self Service on MyKSC. “If they log onto Self Service every day they are keeping track of their own progress. I would say that number one for students is getting into the classes they need,” said Cormier, who added Self Service allows students to map out a four-year plan for classes.
Cormier said Self Service is an important tool to help avoid problems with schedules and the Academic and Career Advising Center trains students in using Self Service and making sure students are getting into the right classes.
Academic Advisor Patricia Halloran said the Academic and Career Advising Cennter works closely with students to learn about Student Planning and said she believes Student Planning helps all students be able to track their progress and see what courses they need to take in an easily accessible way.
“I like Student Planning a lot because it helps students to be sure they are on track to graduate on time and even look beyond graduation,” said Halloran.
Halloran said she notices a huge change in first year students between when she meets with her advisees in October and when she meets with them in March. Halloran said by the second semester students are asking really good questions about what classes to take , about their future and Halloran said second semester students seem to really care about doing well in college.
Colby Dudal can be contacted at cdudal@kscequinox.com
