Santa Rosa Junior College's bid to reform its registration process has a hit a snag - student Tiffinie McCracken.
A single mother of three, a part-time college employee and a full-time student, McCracken has been a whirlwind of protest since reading about the college's plan to begin next month's fall registration period each night at midnight. Such a late start would punish those without the time or ability to get online in the middle of the night, McCracken said.
"There are a lot of single parents here," said McCracken, who has gathered 145 signatures protesting the new start time. "And we can't leave our children at home at midnight to find a computer to register on."
Her one-woman campaign has pushed the college to reconsider the change. Diane Traversi, SRJC's director of admissions, acknowledged McCracken had a valid point, one that hadn't come up in nearly a year of committee planning for the shift.
"I realize it's a problem," she said.
The goal all along has been to make the highly competitive registration process more fair, Traversi said. Traditionally, as SRJC students earn credits, they earn the right to sign up for classes on earlier days.
But even students with equal priority end up with unequal odds depending on what two-hour registration window they are assigned. For quick-filling classes, like anatomy, that can make all the difference.
A midnight start line for everyone in the same priority ranking was supposed to be a way to favor motivated students rather than those who simply got lucky with a good sign-up time. Some students, like Jesse Hewson, a natural resource management student, wholeheartedly agreed with it.
"If you're serious about signing up for your classes, you'll either stay up to midnight or use an alarm clock," he said. "The people who really want to take classes will find a way to do it. Pretty much everyone knows someone who has a computer."
Still McCracken had no trouble Tuesday finding students who agreed with her viewpoint.
"Make it at a time everyone has a fair chance for access to a computer," said Rachel Collins, who is completing her general education requirements. "Not everyone has access to a computer."
While the rise of smartphones means many students have online access 24 hours a day, others aren't so wired, especially at midnight.
Last semester, a college survey found that 3 percent of SRJC students reported that inadequate Internet access threatened their ability to stay in college.
Traversi said the school is now considering moving the start time to 6 a.m., which McCracken finds just as problematic. Online registration should be at an hour when SRJC's computer labs, the county library and other places with accessible computers are open, she said
Traversi acknowledged there is no perfect time but said that a 6 a.m. start would at least give students without computer access less time to wait until labs opened. That would mean less of a delayed start than the 12 a.m. kickoff. If the school moved the time to later in the day, many students would either be in class or at work, she said, saying 6 a.m. may be the best time for all.
"I think it serves the greatest needs and attempts to balance and compromise for all groups," Traversi said. "I will never be able to pick one time that suits everyone."
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