Registration Begins Early For Student Athletes

By Bianca Dinkha  

For the first time, Dominican has implemented priority registration for student athletes to select courses for next fall. This initiative aims to help balance both academic and athletic responsibilities, though not all students are thrilled about the change.   

Priority registration began on Friday, April 4, allowing seniors, students with accommodations, and athletes to register first, with athletes receiving early access regardless of how many credit hours they’ve earned.  

In the past years, athletes were having trouble scheduling classes, since many of them cannot go to class past 2 p.m. due to practice and games. Because of this, they are unable to take classes in the afternoon.  

For athletes, early registration ensures that they can maintain their full-time student status, as required by the NCAA, according to University Registrar Jennifer McClure.   

“Competing isn’t just games,” McClure said. “There’s practice and requirements, and they can’t change that schedule. They have no agency for themselves to make any adjustments.”   

She also emphasized that in total, there are 280 students that have access to early registration, including both athletes and those with accommodations.   

“The number compared to the overall student body is fairly small, so it’s unlikely that they will gobble up seats.” she added.   

Athletics Director John Planek stated that since student athletes are recruited, it would be unfair to recruit them if they are unable to meet academic requirements due to practice conflicts.   

“I don’t think it’s to give them an advantage,” Planek said. “[If] we’re requiring you to be at practice at a certain time, we can’t just say too bad, you have to figure it out. We’ll make accommodations to make sure that you’re in the best possible situation to get your classes.”  

Junior Jupiter Jones, however, shared her frustration with the new changes.  

“Students that aren’t athletes also have to schedule their lives outside of Dominican and cater it to their class schedule, but no one is giving them early registration,” Jones said. “I don’t think any other group besides students, who receive accommodations, should be registering early. Students who receive accommodations need to register early, for numerous reasons, and for other students to start receiving early registration makes it seem like there is a hierarchy at Dominican.   

It should continue to be in order of credit standing.”  

Senior Ryan Barnett, who plays on the men’s volleyball team offered a different perspective.  

“I can definitely see why people are upset about it,” he said. “But I don’t think it affects people as much as they think it does. Athletes make up such a small part of the school.”  

Barnett also pointed out that some students experienced issues with the registration system on Friday morning, as it failed to correctly recognize their class year, making it difficult for them to enroll in classes with prerequisites.  

As fall registration begins, McClure says the registrar’s office will monitor how the process unfolds and stay open to student feedback.  

bdinkha@my.dom.edu