Thomas Hawks joined Kenyon’s English department to teach literature and poetry writing, but today, he serves students across campus as dean for academic advising and support. We spoke to him about tips for students who may feel stressed out when it comes time to register for next semester’s courses.
What are your tips to successfully register for courses?
Think ahead. Be flexible. Don’t panic. And communicate with faculty.
It can be stressful if you think of the Plan Ahead session as the entirety of registration. I find that it’s helpful to think of registration as a four-stage process, where Plan Ahead sets the table and gives students their first shot at a potential slate of classes. Next, there is a 24-hour open-enrollment period when students can add any class that has an open seat — there’s often quite a bit of shuffling throughout that period, because students have an enrollment cap, so if there’s an open class they want to add, they’ll need to drop one of the classes they picked up through Plan Ahead.
Then, there’s a period at the end of the semester for a week when students can add and drop classes again, and once again the enrollment cap requires that students who join new classes open up seats for other students. That same Drop/Add process happens one last time, during the first seven class days of the next semester. Thinking of all of that as the process of registration tends to make students less stressed out if their initial round of classes from Plan Ahead isn’t what they were hoping for.
Because Kenyon is small and focuses on small classes with lots of contact with faculty, instead of large lectures, there’s a certain amount of shuffling to get everyone into the right place. But in the end, I think registration tends to go better than people often think it does in those days immediately after the Plan Ahead schedules are run.
Can you say more about the importance of students communicating with faculty?
I always encourage students to reach out to the professors whose classes they want to add. If there’s no space available, faculty can add students to a waiting list. Even if the waiting list if full, faculty can communicate with their department chair when there’s a lot of demand for a class that’s full. The registrar’s office and my office are also looking to see where there’s a lot of unmet demand. One of the benefits that comes from being a small place and having a drawn-out registration process is that we can respond to students’ interests and needs. We communicate a lot with the provost’s office and department chairs, who may be able to allocate resources to add additional courses or additional sections of a course.
And we do add courses every year between registration and the start of the next semester. So it’s important that students find ways to communicate their interests, because even if they don’t get added to that class, that can lead to other opportunities opening for them and their peers.
What if a student doesn’t get into a course they need for their major during a specific semester?
Most of our majors require somewhere between 4.5 and 6.5 units. Students need to take 16 units to graduate, and they need 9 units outside their major. So, all the classes you’re taking that aren’t in your intended major are counting toward that 9-unit outside-the-major requirement, are probably counting toward your diversification requirements, and are freeing up time for later in your Kenyon career to focus more on work within your major.
How can students get help with any academic problems they might encounter?
Don’t hesitate to contact your faculty advisor or to get in touch with me. The Office of Academic Advising is located on the second floor of Chalmers Library, and students can schedule an appointment online.