LAU Online Registration- Students puzzlement

“How would I register the course I want if the system is very slow and classes close immediately!?”, “Why does this problem of registration and people registering all at a time never has a solution?”, “Is the Add by Force process useful? Is it appropriate that a university like LAU still has such problems?”
This is just a sample of the questions raised by many of the Lebanese American University students during the stage of suffering and confusion they experience every time they want to register for the next semester.
Sarah Younes, 22, Interior Architecture, finds it so difficult to register online the courses she wants, “there aren’t a lot of classes available for students to register and the internet freezes from the amount of students trying to register all at a time.”
“The whole process needs to be revised and many things should be re-considered” agrees Israa Ziade, 23, Communication Arts. “There is so much pressure on the system during registration because everyone is trying to get in at the same time. It doesn’t allow you to log in and freezes which turns the whole process into an absolute mess”.
Pirlanta Toubba, 21, Communication Arts, is a good example of someone who has experienced the registration process somewhere else before joining LAU. “I transferred last year from AUD (American University of Dubai) and I had many difficulties in knowing what is exactly happening with me, concerning what year I am, what major, what courses I should take and the transferred credits.”
Yet, students who aren’t able to register their courses online still have a chance with what is called the “add by force” process”. This includes filling a by-force sheet and getting it approved by the records office, and then the student is asked to go and enter the course number and register it into the system by themselves.
Fadi Shoukeir, 24, Management, praises the “add by force” process, “I think it is a very smart thing to do because a lot of the times since seniors get the priority over the rest of the students to register, by the time freshmen or sophomore try to register with a instructor which are in one way or another better than others, they find a difficulty because most of the classes are closed”. He then adds, “This will lead them to register by force so if it wasn’t for by force I would have probably failed! “
However, Sarah and Pirlanta note that the “add by force” process also is part of the mess. “For some courses it is easy to get it and for some it’s very hard. Some instructors make a big deal out of it” says Sarah. Pirlanta adds, “It is not well organized, when they want to do something like this it should be to solve the problem not to make it even worse in some cases”.
The 4 of them believe that there is a way to make the registration process easier and better for both students and the university itself. “I think they should open more classes from the beginning or let all courses have enough by force” believes Sarah. Yet, Pirlanta suggests that LAU change the system by offering the courses on a huge screen on campus, then “each student fills an application of the courses they want to take and registers them through a machine where a form of the courses comes out approved directly”. She adds,” at least this was the way the process takes place in AUD and it was much easier”.
Israa and Fadi agree that a big part of the problem is with the LAU internet server that most students complain about. “They need to get a bigger server that is able to handle to all students being online at the same time” says Israa. Hence Fadi adds, “I don’t think it’s a big deal if LAU pays a certain expense and the solution would be to increase their service capacity or simply add new service to the systems that would enable to accommodate the increasing number of students every semester”.
Raed Mohsen, Dean of Students, states that online registration has to start at a specific time.” If it’s not at 12 am (which is programmed as the beginning of a new date/day), then it has to be at another time. Therefore, changing the time will not neither help nor harm the process” answering the people who criticize the time of registration.
Micheline Khairallah, LAU records office, agrees with Mohsen’s point of view,” It’s normal to find the internet freezing even if we had to do it at 12 am or at 1 or at 2. Approximately 40% of the students come to me to sign by force because a lot of them want to register with a specific instructor and we can’t have all the students in one class with this specific instructor.”
Regardless of who is responsible of this continuous seasonal suffering at each registration process, LAU students want to see it becoming better and easier than it is now and they put a lot of hopes on the awareness of the LAU officials. Khairallah comments, “LAU always looks for what is best for its students that’s why we always sit together and think about new ways of making registration fit for every student but I can’t give you one specific solution for now!”.



















