Registrations for winter, spring semesters leave few available courses for students

With the fall 2009 semester coming to a finish, attention has moved to the up-and-coming winter and spring 2010 semesters.

For winter 2010, only 112 sections will be offered, with 84.9 percent of those seats already filled. In the winter 2009 session, 186 sections were offered.

The headcount for winter 2009 was 2,733, as opposed to winter 2010, which is currently 2,582.

Meanwhile for spring 2010, only 915 sections will be offered, with 54.3 percent of those seats already filled. Last spring had 1,090 sections offered.

The head count for spring 2009 was 3,468, but for spring 2010, enrollment has increased by 1,648 with a head count of 5,116.

“Winter is smaller,” said Irene Malmgren, vice president of instruction. “It is 82.6 percent full.”

Fewer classes means less opportunity for students to fulfill their requirements.
 “[Winter 2010 session] has filled up more quickly than previous terms,” said Samuel Lee, dean of language arts.

Some classes, such as biology 105, are filling up in as quickly as two days.

English 103 is another heavily sought-after subject that has also filled up rapidly.

Even with classes reaching full capacity soon, some students are still able to grab the classes they need.

Robby Pardorla, 20, is a third year Citrus student. Pardorla was able to register all of his class choices for both winter and spring 2010 “except English 104.”

Marcella Chow, 21, is in her fourth year at Citrus.

“I got all the classes I need except  English 104,” she said

Other students, such as Vanessa Morales, had a tough time registering for classes.

Morales won’t be able to attend the winter 2010 semester because it was  “too full.”

“I couldn’t get any classes,” she said.

Besides the economy, the fact that “students are more alert now” is another reason classes are filling up so quickly, Malmgren said.

“We didn’t see students enrolling this much earlier in fall,” she said.

Students have until the Saturday of the week when they register to pay.
If students fail to pay for their classes, then they get dropped and every Sunday at 12:01 a.m. students have the opportunity to add those classes dropped by other students.

“Take any class at any time just to be in the system and don’t drop it,” Lee advised. “If you’re on the computer at 12:01 a.m. during a roll-out date, you can take that seat.”