LONG LINES, HIGHER fees, and portal woes plagued Bedans during the second semester enrollment period for the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), with only a week allotted for it, last January 8 to 12.
As the second semester began on January 15, the students of the CAS flooded the gates of the Lion’s Den for their enrollment.
Students with lacking documents, unsettled accounts, missing grades, and gathering scholarship requirements were instantly confronted with long queues at the Accounting Office, the University Cashier, and the Registrar’s Office.
Because of these woes, Jomari Dofeliz, the fourth-year representative of the Junior Financial Management Association (JFINMA), said that “long queues in the cashier led to [a longer] waiting time for payment and back” and that “failed courses requiring consultation with Department Chairpersons first” resulted in a busy enrollment period.
“Since the original plan of the CAS was to finish the enrollment in just a week, it turned out to be hectic for both the students and the staffs,” added Denise Diaz, the second-year representative of the Junior Bedan Law Circle (JBLC).
As an influx of batch concerns regarding forms and documents were required to be complied with the Registrar first, unsettled accounts in the Accounting Office and unpublished grades were missing in the pre-registration forms that are necessary prior to enrollment.
Moreover, even after their payment for tuition, students were still bound to encounter long queues in other offices as continued validations of payment and the release of certificates of registration in the five-day enrollment period proved to be a surmounting amount to handle.
“For students who did online payment and validation through email, a lot of student emails were overlooked, necessitating them to line up for personal validation,” Dofeliz noted. Because of these, course invitations in the online class platform Red Canvas were also delayed.
Nonetheless, the offices, department chairpersons, and the batch representatives strove to speed up the process of enrollment by accommodating the students with concerns wholly during the period.
“I was constantly in contact with personnel such as the Registrar Office and CAS Central Office. I collated all the information to be sent to the batch for the purpose of minimizing those who will reach out to the offices concerned hence, less work for all parties,” shared Diaz.
Recognizing the need to accommodate the students who have yet to finalize their accounts and other concerns, at the supposed final day of enrollment last January 12, Dean Christian Bryan Bustamante released a memorandum extending the enrollment period until January 19 “in consideration of students processing their applications for overload, scholarships, accountabilities, and payment.”
The Dean also stipulated that all “unpaid pre-registration forms” would be already deleted by January 20.