The Add/Drop Period: Information for Faculty

During the Add/Drop period students may register for a course section only if there is an open seat and then ONLY if the student has been granted permission by the instructor of record via Self Service.

Important dates

August 26-30 – Faculty make presemester requests to change caps. (Requests can also be made once the add/drop period begins but faculty are encouraged to make these changes prior to the start of the semester.) Please note that changes to caps are temporary and apply during the current semester add/drop period only. Caps will revert to the official standard course cap in future semesters.  (Please note that in the fall semester, caps for freshman sections will only be changed after they have completed registration during the NSO week.)

• August 19 – Faculty will be notified that waitlists will be deleted to facilitate on-line registration.  Faculty and/or department administrative assistants are responsible for making copies of the lists if needed for reference.* 
• August 28 – Waitlists are deleted early in the morning.*
• September 3-13 – Permission to add course sections is given via Self Service by the instructor of record. There are no exceptions for standard registrations.  (See below for non-standard registration.) Note that students will be allowed to add only if there is an available seat. 

Important forms and links

• Request for Section Cap Increase – use  this google form to request that the cap for your course section be increased for the duration of the add/drop period in order to accommodate additional students. Students cannot register if there is not an open seat - even if you provide permission. Thus you may need to raise your section cap if you wish to allow additional students to enroll.  (The form will open on August 26.)
  • Note that your requested total enrollment cannot exceed the fire-code capacity for your assigned room.
• Grant permission for a student to register for an open seat during add/drop by using the same procedure used to provide faculty consent:
  • WebAdvisor Faculty Menu / Self Service (faculty) / Permissions tab / faculty consent
  • There are full instructions (with screen shots) for granting Self Service permission for a student to register during the add/drop period here.

Waitlists – what happens to them?

Course sections with waitlists allow only students on the waitlist to register for an open seat.  In order to allow on-line registration by permission, we must delete the waitlists.  Please note that they are not recoverable once they have been deleted – even by staff in the Registrar’s office.  They are, quite literally, gone.  If you believe that you need a copy of the waitlist for reference, please be sure to print that waitlist, or ask your departmental AA to print that waitlist before the deletion date.

How will students register for open seats during the add/drop period?

Students will register via WebAdvisor/Self Service, but registration during the add/drop period is by permission only.  If you have open seats, or have raised your cap to create open seats, you can give permission via Self Service to any student to register for one of the open seats. Keep in mind that “open seats” means seats officially open via your Self Service roster. If non-attending students are still officially enrolled, the seats you plan to give to other students may be unavailable. You may need to ask the registered student to drop – students can drop at will via WebAdvisor/Self Service.  Alternately, the instructor of record may ask the Registrar’s office to drop a non-attending student (during the add/drop period only) in order to allow another student to register for that seat.  (See Attendance policy for information about when a faculty member can request a student be dropped.)

• Instructions for granting Self Service permission for a student to register during the add/drop period  (This is exactly the same process as you would use during regular registration to faculty consent.)
• Request that a student be dropped for non-attendance by sending an email to reg@lclark.edu.  Be sure to include:
  • Name and ID of student
  • Course and section number of class
  • State that you wish to have the student withdrawn for non-attendance.  (See attendance policy for guidelines.)
  • Include the last date of attendance – or state student never attended.  This is required for financial aid purposes.  We cannot drop the student without this information.

Please note that if a student has a student accounts hold, we may not be able to drop the student from the course.

How do I revoke permission that I gave previously?

See instructions on the Revoke Permissions page.

What sticky details should I keep in mind?

• While faculty can now give permission on-line at any time of the day or night, and students can register once permission is received, this will not be a panacea for students who procrastinate.  Students with holds must still address those issues with individual offices during regular business hours, and must complete their business by 4pm on the last day of the add/drop period. 
• With the exception of independent study forms and internship forms (and special program students), all permission to add a course section must be done via Self Service.  There will be no other exceptions.  It is not possible for the Registrar’s Office to manually track registration and caps while simultaneously allowing on-line registration. 

Will any paper forms be required?

Yes - Some irregular registration will require a paper or PDF component in addition to Self Service permission.

The following forms are used to supplement the on-line process which cannot currently manage separate permissions.

• Time conflicts

Time conflicts are not encouraged, but those deemed necessary (and that fall within the authorized maximums) are allowed for sophomores, juniors and seniors.  (Please note that freshmen are not allowed to register for courses with time conflicts.)  Involved faculty members must provide Self Service permission to register for the courses. In addition, the student must complete the Time Conflict form, and both instructors must provide approval by by forwarding the forms with approval to reg@lclark.edu.

All such forms must be submitted to the Registrar’s office by the student in order to complete the registration. They are all due before 4pm on the last day of the add/drop period, but we STRONGLY recommend that they be submitted earlier. 

Are there any registrations which are purely paper/PDF or google form based?

Yes – those for which a course section does not currently exist, and those for which students do not necessarily have access to web registration.

• Special program students

Students such as Alliance Cross-Registration students or staff do not typically have access to web registration functions.  Permission to register will be given via paper/pdf forms provided by the Admissions office or on forms specifically designed for Alliance cross registration.

All such forms must be submitted to the Registrar’s office by the student in order to complete the registration.  Instructor approval may be made directly on the paper form by signature.  Alternately, the form can be forwarded with approval from the instructor to reg@lcalrk.edu. They are all due before 4pm on the last day of the add/drop period.

What should I know about security?

As the IT department states on its password information page, “NEVER give your password to anyone, even if you are asked for it.”  Please do not give your login and password information to another person in order to allow them to provide permission in your place. It is not sanctioned and allows inappropriate access to student data and grades. Not only does it defeat the integrity of our historical data and authorization system, it may put you at risk for identity theft.  Sending your private information through email, or having another person save the information to a hard-drive (or tape it to some other insecure location such as the bottom of a keyboard) can make you vulnerable to the types of payroll and other scams experienced by this college in recent years.

Who should I contact if I have questions?

Feel free to contact the Registrar’s Office with any questions about on-line add/drop processes.
reg@lclark.edu.

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* Please note that in preparation for the fall semester only,  wait-lists for freshmen sections will not be deleted until the NSO registration period has concluded.