LSA Undergraduate Course Waitlist Policy – effective Fall Term 2009
INTRODUCTION
There are two important functions that waitlists can serve. For the College, waitlists are a way to gauge
unmet course demand. For students, waitlists are a way to indicate interest in a class that is full. A
clear, concise, College-wide Waitlist Policy will provide better service to our students and make the
management of enrollment consistent during registration periods.
LSA WAITLIST POLICY and BEST PRACTICES
1. All LSA undergraduate courses should have an on-line waitlist in effect at the beginning of
registration (see numbers 8 & 9 below).
2. All LSA departments should establish waitlist priority* guidelines.
3. Waitlist priorities should be consistent for all sections of a course.
4. Waitlist priority guidelines and expectations should be posted in the LSA Course Guide, on the
department web site, and as advice/information from instructors, department staff, academic
advisors, and others.
5. Waitlist procedures should not change once registration begins.
6. Waitlists should be monitored closely on a frequent and regular basis and permissions issued as
spaces open up according to the department waitlist priority guidelines.
7. Permissions given from the waitlist should have a limited expiration in order to keep the process
dynamic. This time period can be adjusted at the discretion of the department. Expiration after
three days during the Fall or Winter full terms and 5 days during the Spring or Summer half
terms is recommended.
8. For large multi-component classes (i.e. Lecture/Discussion, Lecture/Lab, etc.), departments may
choose to wait until the Lecture section is full before adding waitlists in order to encourage
students to choose open sections at less desirable days or times.
9. For classes where seats are opened up gradually during registration (First Year Seminars, for
example), waitlists should be added once all seats are made available.
10. For classes where some seats are reserved for a specified group, departments should carefully
consider setting up meet-together sections for each group with a waitlist on each. This is not
ideal for large multi-component courses; other options should be considered.
11. For classes where all seats are reserved for a specified group, departments should use Class
Requisites (in Class Associations) instead of Reserve Caps.
12. Class sections that are scheduled but held in reserve pending enrollment need should be capped
at zero so that they don’t appear on an Open Section Search in Wolverine Access.
* Waitlist priority refers to how students are chosen from the waitlist and given permission to
register when open seats become available. For example, newly opened seats in a class may be
given to the seniors or concentrators on the waitlist regardless of a student’s waitlist number.
December 1, 2008
LSA Undergraduate Course Waitlist Policy – effective Fall Term 2009
BENEFITS (above and beyond those outlined in the Introduction above):
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respond proactively to the curricular needs of LSA undergraduate students;
provide transparent, predictable practices for students;
relieve much of the burden on instructors from managing enrollment at the start of the term;
give students better ability to gauge likelihood of getting into closed classes;
provide students with a consistent way to express interest in oversubscribed classes;
better assess and monitor course demand;
better anticipate enrollment trends;
more accurately plan course offerings for future terms; and
support budget requests with instructional (i.e. faculty, lecturer, GSI) implications.
SOME FACTS ABOUT WAITLISTS
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Waitlisted students are not automatically registered when a space opens up in the class.
As soon as a class with a waitlist closes and a student gets on the waitlist, the class does not
open if seats are added or if a student drops the class as long as there is at least one person on
the waitlist.
A student can only waitlist for one section of a multi-component course.
A student enrolled in one section of a multi-component course cannot waitlist for another
section in the same association.
Monitoring waitlists consists of running regular enrollment reports to see whether classes have
closed. If students are on the waitlist and open seats become available, the staff member can
go to the class roster and issue permissions directly from the waitlist. Permissions automatically
generate an email to the student alerting them that they can now register for the class and
when the permission expires.
When students get on a waitlist they are assigned a waitlist number indicating where they are
on the list. This number is dynamic. As waitlisted students register, those remaining on the
waitlist can go to their Class Schedule in Wolverine Access to see if their position on the waitlist
has changed.
M-Pathways waitlists are not able to prioritize students based on anything other than the order
in which they got on the waitlist. However waitlist rosters can be sorted by various fields
including Program/Plan, Academic Level, and Student Group.
Registration and administration of classes that do not reach their enrollment cap are not
affected by the presence or absence of a waitlist.
Enforced prerequisites occasionally affect whether a student can get on a waitlist. Transfer
credit that has not been processed or is not transferred as a specific course equivalent can
prevent a student from getting on a waitlist.
December 1, 2008