Responsibility falls on seniors to know grad requirements

As advance registration ends on Monday, students who plan to graduate in May may be unaware of the requirements they still need to fulfill.

Although over the past few weeks seniors have received e-mails reminding them to check that all their requirements are in order, students will not be notified by the University of their unfulfilled requirements until advance registration concludes.

Major advisers, for their part, often only counsel seniors on fulfilling their major requirements, not their general requirements.

According to Senior Adviser for the College Hocine Fetni, all seniors will be audited before the end of fall semester. Those missing requirements will receive a notice before winter break.

To make sure that seniors are aware of these requirements, the College advising program has run two "Senior Days" this semester. On Senior Day, seniors are invited to meet with advisers and review their academic worksheets. Yet, many seniors did not choose to participate, according to Fetni.

Others steps are taken, as well, to help ensure that students graduate in four years, including requirement substitutions and prioritized enrollment.

"If it is someone's spring semester of their senior year, they have priority," said Emily Papir, undergraduate coordinator for the communication major.

Stressing the importance of advance registration, Papir said that advance requests would take precedence over seniors' last-minute needs, but added that "it really depends on the situation."

Fetni maintains that, despite all these safeguards, the responsibility ultimately lies with the students.

"There is an assumption that a senior, after so many years of academic advising, should know where he stands for fulfilling academic requirements," he said.

According to the College advising Web site, students are responsible "to be active and informed participants in the advising process and learn to take an ever-increasing level of responsibility for the shape of their education and defining life goals."

Seniors who do not realize they have requirements to fulfill or that advance registration is occurring are rare, Fetni said.

"To be honest, seniors should know there is advance registration," Fetni said. "These are not students who are new to the institution."

Seniors felt similarly, with many saying that they are aware of their remaining requirements.

"It is really my responsibility to get it done," College senior Matt Klapper said of his writing requirement.

Klapper has put off taking a writing seminar until his last semester, but says that his situation is not an anomaly.

"Pretty much every senior needs to fulfill some sort of requirement," he said.

Agreeing, College senior Cheryl Lin said, "I'm pretty much set -- I just need to fulfill one requirement."

Klapper plans to register during advance registration. Although class size is limited in writing seminars, he is not worried about getting in.

"I'm sure I'll be let in somewhere," he said. "I don't plan on sticking around here for another year."

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