Colgate University’s first-year students faced an uphill battle while attempting to register for classes when the website crashed on Thursday, Nov. 14. An email sent to first-year students the next morning explained that the online student information system, where students register for courses during designated time slots, experienced issues connecting to the database around 7:10 p.m., leading to issues with registration.
While the first group completed their registration successfully, the second, third and fourth groups — which are organized by last name — were moved to slots between 8:15 to 8:45 p.m. These groups were initially scheduled to register all before 7:45 p.m.
Neil Albert, associate provost for institutional analysis who works closely with the registrar, detailed the registrar’s response to the issues.
“All first-years were provided additional registration time to ensure they could complete the process, and we are committed to addressing any remaining individual concerns through the Registrar’s Office,” Albert said.
First-year Megan Dunne, who was in the third group, discussed her frustrations when trying to register for classes.
“Since the course offerings page was down, I had no knowledge on if the classes that I wanted were available, meaning I couldn’t alter plans,” Dunne said.
Dunne also explained how registration looked on her end and that not much explanation was given at the time.
“The error messages in the portal were very unclear and often conflicting,” Dunne said. “The emails clarified timing, but I wish they figured out the issues before making us register again with continued errors and glitches in the portal.”
First-year Matthew Fumo had mixed results when trying to get help during his delayed registration process.
“I think the administration’s response was a little weak because they didn’t give much detail and their estimates were not accurate, but they did respond to my email quickly asking for tech help, so I appreciated that,” Fumo said.
First-year Anna Harrington expressed similar frustrations, as she was scheduled for the last time slot of the evening — effectively the last group of students to register for classes at Colgate.
“The glitch added a lot of unnecessary stress. Being in the last group, I was already worried about not getting into any of my classes, but the issue only made that feeling worse,” Harrington said.
Albert also said his office is working to ensure these issues do not happen again.
“We conducted a thorough review of the incident and IT is exploring ways to enhance system reliability to minimize the chance of future disruptions,” Albert said.
