As of Feb. 16, first-time college students at SIU now have the opportunity to register early for fall classes. 

In years past, staggered enrollment for undergraduates would take place over the course of a week, with first-year students registering after returning and transfer students. According to Shelly Gehrke, associate provost for student success, administration requested registration for first-time, first-year, post-high school undergraduates to open in mid-February, a process defined as “priority registration.” First-time students are defined as those who are coming to college for the first time, not SIU specifically. This means transfer students are not included, Gehrke said. 

Wendell Williams, vice chancellor of enrollment management, said priority registration was created to help both the students and the institution. He said around 1,600 applicants indicated on their application or contacted field representatives to say they were ready to register and committed to SIU. 

The university begins receiving applications for the following academic year during the preceding July. Williams said that 79% of students who indicated that they were ready to register received merit-based scholarships, and of that total, around 21% have a 3.8 GPA or higher. 

“Those are kids that are going to be recruited and snatched up by all other universities, and traditionally, we wouldn’t actually begin to register those students until April,” he said. “So you think about that. (You) let me know in November that you were ready to register, and you don’t get a chance to do anything until April. And especially imagine if you’re trying to get an advising appointment or trying to get to orientation, and we want our students registered before they come to orientation. Imagine the staffing challenges it takes to kind of get all of that worked out. 

“Some of our students aren’t getting registered until after they get out of school. So imagine yourself in high school that you would get ready to graduate, and you got a student that might be going to the University of Illinois, at the University of Illinois Chicago, and they’ve already registered for their classes, and you hadn’t registered yet. You’re thinking that you’re behind. So in our strategic planning retreat, we said, ‘Let’s challenge ourselves to allow these students, to give these students priority registration.’” 

Williams said priority registration will give students a locked-in schedule, allowing them to have “peace of mind.” 

“If you think about it, they will be able to make sure that they have enough financial aid or anything else, because those bills are calculated as early as July, so they’ll know exactly what they’re going to be receiving for financial aid or any other things that they might need to do, to do any extra savings or working just to be able to comfortably have a good start to the semester,” Williams said. “It’s just better planning, and we actually yield more students that way.” 

Active military and veteran students of any year or degree are also included in priority registration, as Illinois state law requires them to have access to the earliest registration time available. 

“Those populations will be able to register online until it closes March 29 at 11:59 p.m.,” Gehrke said. “Then March 30, it will kind of go back to normal, where March 30 at 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. are the special populations that get to register like normal, and then starting March 31 is our regular staggered enrollment process, and the new first-time students will be at that point plugged into that process.” 

Special populations include student athletes, University Honors Program students, Chancellor Scholars and Law Honors students.

Williams said the new registration process will also allow the university to better prepare for the school year. 

“Traditionally, some of those general education core courses that these students would be taking might fill up and our new student might not be able to get those classes, but now those students, we will be able to plan well in advance how those classes are filling up,” Williams said. “It’ll help us to problem-solve. It’ll help us to realign any kind of staffing priorities that we might need to do, and it’s going to help with just new student orientation. So that’s the reason why we went with priority registration.” 

Although priority registration comes before returning and transfer students may apply, Williams said he does not think it will hinder their registration process. 

“It probably won’t have a major impact on returning students, because, remember, returning students, especially those who have been here a year, won’t be taking the exact same courses that a lot of the first-time in college students will be taking,” Williams said. “This is just for first-time, brand new students in college.”

Gehrke said the advising team made modifications so advisers could be responsive to new students while also supporting current students. 

“We expect lots of after-registration appointments, and changes to schedules over the next many months,” she said. 

Students can register online at salukinet.siu.edu. Wendell said that if students need help with the registration process, they can reach out to the admissions office, their field representatives, academic advisers and recruitment and retention coordinators. 

“It’s going to give a lot of students a great Saluki start, and when you have a great Saluki start, you’re gonna have a great Saluki finish,” Williams said. 

Editor-in-Chief Carly Gist can be reached at [email protected].

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version, William Wendell, vice chancellor of enrollment management, was identified incorrectly. The story has been updated with his correct title. 

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