SAN MARCOS– A new taskforce has been created by the Vice President of Instruction, Jack Kahn, to revamp the way the waitlist system functions.

Among the members of this taskforce is Department Chair for English, Barbara Kelber. “The waitlist system we have right now poses some difficulty for faculty and students,” Kelber said. “What is happening in the way it is now, is that I’ve asked [waitlisters] to wait… and the waitlisters are participating because they are hoping for a spot. But suddenly … even on the third or fourth meeting, I can have someone appear in the room who is not a waitlister, and is suddenly now there on the roster.”

The reason why this occurs is because the waitlist system as it stands operates in such a way that people on the waitlist are not automatically moved to the official roster when a position becomes available.

If there are 25 people enrolled in class, with 10 people on the waitlist, if one of the 25 drop out, the first queued person on the waitlist has to be physically moved onto the roster by a technician. However, between the time the person from the official roster drops out, and the time that the waitlister is added on, the class remains open for anybody on eservices to enroll.

One of the concerns Kelber raised with this, is not only that students from the waitlist who have been participating can’t find a spot, but also it lowers the overall quality of the class because she has to backtrack a week, sometimes two so that the new enrollees can catch up with the rest of the class.

As it stands, the new design for how the waitlist operates is still undergoing. Kelber hopes that by January of 2018 there will be some new system in place, but there is currently no indication on whether that timeline will be accurate.