By Gil Milanes
East Los Angeles College will soon retire permit slips and welcome back waitlists after more than a decade.
Key points regarding the new Student Information System were discussed Tuesday at the Academic Senate meeting.
Two major changes discussed were the permit slips and waitlists, a procedure that ELAC has not practiced in many years.
Under the new SIS, which will fully go live in the fall, courses will freeze once they’re full, and students wishing to add the course can opt to be placed on a waiting list.
Students will then be added automatically to a class if seats become available. Instructors will also have the ability to add students depending on classroom capacity.
The pink permit slips that students and faculty have used will be gone by the fall. Instead, each instructor will receive permission codes to give to students so they can add the class, but that limit will be flexible.
“Now we can change that (the permission code limit),” Jeremy Allred, dean of admissions, said., adding that “If there is a lot of interest (in a course), then department chairs can go up to at least 20 (permission codes) or more.”
Admissions will no longer handle the permit slips. If the instructor provides a permission code, the student will be responsible for adding the course online through the student portal, and even through a smart phone.
“In the old days, you just had the wait list. On the first day of class you called names, you would add a student with an add permit. This new system will add the student into the course. This is up until the first day of class,” Ana Salazar, senior admissions and records supervisor, said.
Faculty will also have the ability to drop students that don’t show up to the first day of class.
This will allow students on the waiting list to enroll. Payment for tuition deadlines will change under the new system.
For students who register between May and early July, they must submit tuition payments by August 2.
Those who register between early July and August, payments must be submitted by August 25.
If payments are not received by the deadline, the school will be conducting sweeps, which means students will be dropped from courses for failing to submit payments by the deadline.
Faculty at the senate meeting seemed optimistic about the new add-on procedures, but some were concerned for those students who receive financial aid. Allred explained that financial aid recipients would have that status on them and therefore would be fine during sweeps.
SIS Peoplesoft is working to create a student mobile application that will be released before the fall semester.
The app will provide students easy access to the student portal and enable students to use a variety of tools, including adding and dropping classes.
For more information on the wait list policy, visit www.laccd.edu.