Start-of-the-Semester Information for Faculty-Fall 2012

FIRST-YEAR STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION
TRANSFER STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION
COURSE REGISTRATION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS
ENROLLMENT FORMS
COURSE INFORMATION, CLASS LISTS & CLASS EMAIL
CLASSROOM CHANGES
ADD/DROP COURSE REGISTRATION PERIOD
CREDIT/D/FAIL GRADING OPTION
STUDENT ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MEETING
PEOPLE WHO AUDIT COURSES
ACCESS TO COURSE MATERIAL FOR TEACHING ASSISTANTS, TUTORS, ETC.
QUESTIONS?

FIRST-YEAR STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION

Online Information and Materials for Pre-Major Advisors
- to help advisors guide first-year students through the registration process

First-year students will register for courses in three steps:

  1. First-Year Seminar Registration: Students will meet individually with their advisors on Monday, 27 August 2012, between noon and 2:45 p.m. to submit their requests for a first-year seminar using an online form. The advisor accesses the First-Year Seminar Request Form for each advisee. When the advisor logs into the form, a list of advisees appears. The advisor clicks on an advisee's name. If the student will not be requesting a first-year seminar for the fall semester, answer the first question with "No" and click the Submit button. If the student will be requesting a first-year seminar for the fall semester, make sure the "Yes" bullet is chosen for the first question. The student then expresses interest in up to FIVE seminars by entering priority choice numbers in the boxes to the left of those seminars, and clicking the submit button at the bottom of the form. (Advisors may practice using the form before Monday, 27 August 2012; anything entered before that Monday will be deleted.) VERY IMPORTANT: Students must be sure that all of the seminars they choose will fit with the courses they will try to add to their schedules during Phase I registration on Tuesday. Once a student is in a seminar, the seminar cannot be dropped until Wednesday during Phase II registration.

    Late afternoon or early evening on Monday, students will receive email notification of the seminars in which they are enrolled. Students who do not get into a seminar will be notified as well. Advisors will be able to see this information in the Student Information side of Bearings. Enrollment numbers will be updated on the Office of the Registrar web site, so advisors and students will know if any seminars have spaces available.

  2. First-Year Student Course Registration (Phase I): On Tuesday, 28 August 2012, first-year students will meet individually with their advisors between 8:00 a.m. and noon to complete their course registration cards. Students will request three courses plus alternates if they were enrolled in a seminar on Monday; they will request four courses plus alternates if they did not get into a seminar. Any student who was not enrolled in a seminar on Monday may request a seminar on Tuesday, provided there are seminars with spaces available. Students must bring their registration cards to the Office of the Registrar in Moulton Union by the 12:45 p.m. deadline. During this phase of the registration process, students may enroll in no more than four full-credit courses and as many half-credit courses as they wish. First-year students must also have submitted the online Enrollment Form before 12:45 p.m.

  3. Phase II Registration for First Years: Students will receive their schedules in their Smith Union mailboxes by late morning on Wednesday, 29 August 2012. Advisors may wish to request another meeting with an advisee before 12:30 p.m. Phase II registration for first-year students will take place in Room 101 of Kanbar Hall from 12:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.

TRANSFER STUDENT COURSE REGISTRATION

New transfer students will register for courses on Monday afternoon, 27 August 2012, in the Office of the Registrar, after they have participated in an advising meeting with a Dean.

COURSE REGISTRATION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS

Upper-class students, including students who studied away last year and students who are returning from leaves of absence, have already had the opportunity to register for classes. All students may adjust their schedules during the add/drop period at the beginning of the semester. (See add/drop information below.)

ENROLLMENT FORMS

First-year students must submit their online Enrollment Forms by 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, 28 August 2012. All students must submit their Enrollment Forms to the Office of the Registrar no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 September 2012. This form allows students to verify important address and parent information. It also verifies who is on campus. Students who do not submit the form by the deadline will be dropped from their courses because we assume they are not on campus. Enrollment Form guidelines for students are online.

COURSE INFORMATION, CLASS LISTS & CLASS EMAIL

Instructors may view information about their classes by logging into the Course Finder side of Bearings and clicking on Show My Classes. The Class List link opens a class list, and the Class Email link allows an instructor to send email to the entire class. A student who adds a class will not show up on the class list until the add/drop card has been submitted to the Office of the Registrar and processed. Class lists are updated in Bearings each night.

An instructor may give the class email address to students so they may send email to everyone in the class. The instructor always receives a copy of messages sent to the list. An instructor who has a problem sending email to a class should forward the error message to registrar@bowdoin.edu.

The Bowdoin College Catalogue is available online. The Office of the Registrar no longer distributes paper copies of the Catalogue.

A complete Schedule of Course Offerings is available online. There is also a separate Schedule of Course Offerings for First-Year Students. Paper copies of these schedules may be out of date since schedule information frequently changes. The schedules are updated overnight when changes have been made.

Courses may be searched in the Course Finder side of Bearings. There is also a report online that lists courses by the times they meet.

Enrollment numbers for all classes may be found on the Office of the Registrar web site and in the Course Finder side of Bearings. These numbers are updated every night.

CLASSROOM CHANGES

Classrooms were assigned in accordance with the classroom assignment policy. All instructors should visit classrooms assigned to them well in advance of their first teaching day. Staff in Information Technology are happy to answer questions about the equipment in a classroom and provide instructors with equipment training. (Email avservices@bowdoin.edu.) Instructors who need to request a classroom change... up through Friday, 24 August 2012, should ask Helkin von Schwaab in the Office of the Registrar. Beginning Monday, 27 August 2012, all classroom changes will be handled by the Events Office.

ADD/DROP COURSE REGISTRATION PERIOD

All students may add classes to their schedules through the first two weeks of the semester--until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 September 2012. Returning students have until 12 September 2012 to drop a course; students new to Bowdoin have until 11 October 2012. To add a course, a student must acquire the signatures of the instructor and his/her advisor; drops require only the signature of the advisor. Students adding an independent study or honors project must have signatures from the project director and advisor. Students who are switching labs need only the lab instructor's signature--not an advisor's nor the course instructor's signature. Add/drop cards are available in the Office of the Registrar. Complete add/drop instructions are online.

Unlike the Phase I and Phase II course registration periods (during which an instructor's signature will only override course prerequisites), an instructor's signature during add/drop registration will override course prerequisites, course restrictions, and enrollment limits. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the course instructor to track his/her own enrollment numbers during the add/drop period and to confirm the academic background/preparation of students before signing them into a class.

CREDIT/D/FAIL GRADING OPTION

Students may change a course from graded to Credit/D/Fail (or vice versa) until Thursday, 11 October 2012, by using an add/drop card. Signatures are not needed to make this change. See Credit/D/Fail policy information. Note that students with class year 2012 or greater may not elect to take their first-year seminars and courses taken to satisfy division and distribution requirements with the Credit/D/Fail grading option.

STUDENT ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MEETING

Classes start on Thursday, 30 August 2012. An instructor who has students who are eager to add a class that is officially completely full before the first day of class or was "Closed until add/drop" after Phase I registration may choose to drop students from the course who do not attend the first class meeting. An instructor who chooses to exercise this option should email the names of the students to be dropped to registrar@bowdoin.edu within 24 hours of the first official class meeting. This is the only circumstance under which an instructor may directly change a student's enrollment in a course. In all other cases, the student must change his/her own registration either by completing an add/drop card and submitting it to the Office of the Registrar or by submitting a petition to the Recording Committee.

PEOPLE WHO AUDIT COURSES

Instructors may be approached by community members who wish to audit classes. The College is open to having auditors participate in suitable courses. Auditors should never take the place of Bowdoin students, however. Bowdoin College does not keep track of auditors, so the arrangement is made entirely with the instructor. The final decision about the appropriateness of admitting auditors and about the character of their course participation rests with the instructor. Instructors are encouraged to confirm their classroom assignments and their course enrollments before making commitments to auditors.

An auditor who wishes to receive electronic services (e-reserves, class emails, Blackboard access, etc.), must pay a $50 fee per course. To request electronic services, an auditor 1) completes a request form and has the course instructor sign it, and 2) returns the form and pays the fee at the Office of the Registrar. An auditor who chooses not to receive electronic services only has to obtain verbal permission from the instructor to audit a course. Refer the auditor to the Office of the Registrar web site for more information.

ACCESS TO COURSE MATERIAL FOR TEACHING ASSISTANTS, TUTORS, ETC.

An instructor who would like to give a teaching assistant or tutor access to electronic course material should fill in this online form and submit it. Staff in Information Technology will then give this person access to the Blackboard account for the course and forward email sent to the class list to the person's regular Bowdoin email account. An instructor or teaching assistant who has questions or problems with this process should contact the IT Help Desk at x3030.

QUESTIONS?

The Office of the Registrar is located on the first floor of the Moulton Union.
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Office Number: x3521
Office Fax: x3338
Office Email: registrar@bowdoin.edu