CRS: No real time enlistment

By Ma. Angelica Perez and Janina Marie Lagunda


There will be no real time enlistment for the coming semester, a member of the Computerized Registration System team said.
Although most of the stages of the new enlistment procedure is to be done online, it is not the same process as last summer’s real time enlistment.

Real time enlistment is done on a first-come, first-served basis. On the other hand, the new enlistment procedure will have daily batch runs which will rely on random selections by computers.

The university’s only attempt in real time enlistment took place last summer when several problems were encountered.

A hardware problem arose as there was only one machine handling all the student requests for subjects. “Hindi tayo nakakuha ng budget for additional resources kaagad last summer,” said the CRS team member who requested anonymity.

Information dissemination was also a problem as the shift to real-time enlistment was only announced online the night prior to its implementation. As a result, students came in large numbers, desperate to obtain slots in their desired classes.

In response to the problems encountered during the summer trial period, the CRS team came up with a couple of solutions.

Considering that there are more than 18,000 students who access the CRS during enlistment period, new hardware or server computers were purchased to facilitate speedy and efficient accommodation of the students’ requests.

Enlistment schedules were also modified to include daily batch runs. “This will collapse the number of students who are enlisting,” said the CRS team member. “The student population will be divided into subcategories so that the system can accommodate all their requests.”

According to data gathered by the CRS team, 20% of the student population gets the entire schedule that they requested. 60% gets half or more of the classes in which they pre-enlisted. The remaining 20% goes through manual enlistment.

The modified enlistment procedure, which will take effect next semester, will allow students to do almost everything online, from the pre-enlistment stage to the advising stage. However, the

CRS member clarified that “there is still a need to go to school to accomplish the needed paper work for verification.”

The CRS team believes this new process will benefit everyone in the university – the administration, students and professors.

For the administration, the new process is expected to benefit the Electronic Data Processing Section (EDP) of the Office of the University Registrar (OUR). Generating reports for the administration from the CRS database will become easier.

Students will no longer have to wait in line, especially during the phases of the daily batch runs, periods for teachers’ prerogatives (prerogs) and advising.

Professors are also seen to benefit from the new process as they too will be performing tasks such as prerogs and advising online.

In handling the prerog requests, professors will approve and reject enlistments of students online. Professors are given the power to override the system and accept as many students as they can allow.

Furthermore, professors will be provided with a class list of those enlisted as well as those who have or have not paid tuition yet -- a useful aid when handling prerog requests.

But with the new semester fast approaching, there are still problems in the dissemination of information regarding the new enlistment process. Many students are of the understanding that there will be a real time enlistment. “Wala na? What do you mean wala na?” was the most usual reaction of students upon learning that no real time enlistment will take place.

Meanwhile, professors have no knowledge of the intended online prerogs and advising.

After hearing about the new procedure, however, Prof. Regulus Tantoco of the History Department at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy said, “Ganun rin pala. Walang kaibahan. High-tech lang. How do we know kung sino ang kailangan tanggapin?”

Hopefully, it won’t be as messy as manual,” said Prof. Rachael Khan of the Journalism Department at the College of Mass Communication.

Some students expressed their opinions on the new enlistment process of the CRS as well.
A first year Business Administration and Accountancy student who requested not to be named said, “Mabagal nung una. Tapos bumibilis minsan. Minsan it won’t even load. Malamang down yung system.”

“Well, they make it sound so systematic and organized,” said Kris, a third year Economics student. “However, knowing CRS, things wont be that systematic and organized. But I think that the process is well thought of and is quite logical. I just hope that they have lots of backup plans, and that for once, they'd be able to handle any technical flaws or challenges that might come up.”

On the subject of online prerogs, she said, “But iba pa rin eh. Kasi you can do some stuff in person that you can't do online. I think "begging" is more effective when done in person.”
Second year Journalism major Denise said, “If CRS aims to make the enlistment process easier for UP students, then they've got a lot of kinks to smooth out. From the CRS system & process, to the technical glitches, to the fact that we're not assured of slots... There's definitely room for improvement.”

Registration Assistants, or RAs, will still be provided work during the registration period.

Graduate students need not worry as the numbers of slots for subjects are adjusted for them.
The modification in the enlistment process is also seen as a step towards a new system that will be implemented in other UP campuses.