ASMSU’s Academic Affairs committee recently approved a resolution that, upon approval by the general assembly, will recommend MSU implements a universitywide course waitlist system on the current course scheduling system. The new suggested arrangement would replace MSU’s current open-seat notification system and would recognize priority in students with higher academic standing, unless their initial enrollment period has passed.

Almost all Big Ten universities have some sort of waitlist system for scheduling classes, and it’s time MSU sets up its own.

The current system mandates that students must constantly be near a computer or a device that has fast Internet service. Students can sign up for alerts from the website that will send them a text message or email when an open seat becomes available. The first student to race to his or her computer and log onto the scheduling website is the one able to enroll in the class, leaving many others frustrated and waiting for the next open-seat notification. It’s nearly impossible to be the first to enroll in a class unless a person is sitting in front of his or her computer when the notification arrives.

The new system should give students with higher academic standing first priority for an open seat if it becomes available, but the system also should give preferential treatment to upper-class students and students whose major corresponds with the class they are attempting to sign up for.

Seniors should be able to get into a class before freshmen because a freshman will have plenty of other semesters to schedule that course.

The new system would allow students on the waiting list to enroll in a course without having to race other students to the website, fixing many of the main frustrations students experience with the current system.

This system also would help students figure out their probability of enrolling in a course. If students were able to know their spots on the waitlist, they could be more confident about whether they could gain enrollment in a course.

The system the university currently uses keeps students on their toes at every moment at the beginning of a semester, simply waiting for a spot to open up in the class they want and hoping it happens at the proper moment when they are near a computer so they can enroll in a course. This new system would solve this problem, leaving students aware of how close they are to gaining enrollment in a course.

If ASMSU passes this resolution and the school implements it, it would replace an archaic system that pits students against each other in a race to enroll in courses.

Many other schools already have a waitlist system set up on their scheduling websites, and MSU should create its own system that gives preferential treatment to students with higher academic standing, upper-class students and students whose major corresponds with the course.