Let me set the scene for you: It’s early March and I’m sitting in the Bronco Student Center, having just finished my lunch. It’s not sitting as well as I hoped it would.
I’m looking at my BroncoDirect shopping cart on my phone. In about two minutes, my appointment for summer semester enrollment will begin.
I have the one specific class I need, at the perfect time and day, selected and ready to go. I’ve gone to multiple appointments with my advisor to ensure it’s absolutely the right class for me to take. It’s a general education requirement that I’ve been putting off since I started at Cal Poly Pomona. I decided to take it during the summer so I can focus solely on this one class.
With less than a minute to go until my designated registration time, my stomach begins to gurgle, both from anticipation and from my precarious lunch choice.
I finally hit “enroll.” The few seconds it takes to load the new page feel like anxious minutes. Then, when I see what the status of my enrollment is, my pounding heart drops into my nervous stomach as I see the dreaded red “X” next to my single summer class.
After I speed walked to my advisor’s office in a panic, we discovered that BroncoDirect felt that I had not fulfilled a certain requirement in order to take this class.
Mind you, it was a general education course without any prerequisites. My advisor informed me that the problem was with BroncoDirect, not with me. After another panicked jog to the department office, I was able to get a permission number and enroll.
Though this may seem like a minor hiccup, it is indicative of a far larger problem with CPP’s enrollment process and the software it is conducted on. Imagine if I had been a freshman with no prior knowledge of requirements and prerequisites? This might only be a minor inconvenience to students who have been through this process for years now. However, a new student who might not even know who his or her advisor is yet might suffer with an undesirable schedule.
The lack of overall clarity with requirements for each aspect of a student’s degree requirements must be made clearer. The Degree Progress Report must be emphasized heavily and explained clearly during the orientation process. At my orientation, I was just handed a packet of classes, told to pick some and then participated in absolutely annoying and pointless team-building exercises with students I would never see again.
Our campus community is full of friendly people, fun clubs and engaging events that students should absolutely take advantage of during their time here.
However, the reality cannot be denied that a huge majority of the student body are commuters. If you were to ask me or any of my fellow commuters why we prefer living at home while going to school, we’ll tell you that it’s because we wanted to focus primarily on getting through school. We want to get in and get out. And with the current BroncoDirect enrollment process, that goal is much easier said than done.