The Cerritos College Faculty Senate discussed the possibility of revising the priority enrollment policy to better aid students who are succeeding at its meeting on March 1.
According to Faculty Senate President Debra Moore put it on the agenda, so the Faculty Senate could discuss whether it would like to propose any changes to the procedure.
Moore said, “We are trying to help students get higher enrollment status by giving them an incentive to do better.”
As of right now, the way priority enrollment operates is one of two ways: a point system and the enrollment in certain programs, such as EOPS or DSPS.
Students who don’t fit into one of the seven priority worthy programs fall into the point system pool. In the point system students receive points based on certain criteria that updates on a semester to semester basis, accumilating points along the way.
The breakdown of the point system is as follows: a student who is enrolled in zero to three units receives no points, 3.5 to six units equals two points, 6.5 to nine units get four points, 9.5 to 15 units receives six points and 15.5 or more units equals 10 points.
Students also receive an additional point for every unit they are enrolled in after the last day to drop, despite what grade they are receiving in the class. So a student who fails a class can still receive points according to the policy.
Ten bonus points are rewarded to students who earn a GPA of 2.0 or higher.
The higher a student is on the point system, the higher his priority enrollment status will be, but once he reaches 90 points, he is then reset back to zero which will drop him back down to the bottom of the list.
The exception to the point system will be students who are enrolled in special programs.
Priority enrollment is given to students who are enrolled in the following programs and are listed by top priority, EOPS students, DSPS, U.S. Armed Forces, CalWORKS, Student Athletes, Mandatory Enrollment Requirement Students, Scholars’ Honor Students, Matriculated Students then continuing students followed by returning students.
One issue Faculty Senate talked about revising is to not reward the student who fails class even though they stayed in after the drop date.
According to Moore there are “approximately 3,900 students in the groups starting from EOPS through Scholars’ Honor students.”
Matriculated students are not part of that number.
She then proposed that students that come before matriculated students be given a cap of units they can enroll in and once everyone in the list has had a chance to enroll then the remaining classes will be open to anyone else who wishes to enroll in them.
“The problem we face is that students are taking on too many units then dropping them not allowing for other students a chance to fill that spot.” Moore said, “So by implanting a unit cap it would discourage people from shopping around.”
Child development, Paul Zapata, said, “I think a cap should be put on students who keep dropping classes.”
Many students do not know how priority enrollment works and that policy is made available to those who are interested.
Jesus Cuarenta, undecided major, had an idea of who got priority enrollment.
“I think it’s based on how you’re doing in school, GPA, and seniority.”
Cuarenta was not aware that the policy was made available to students.
Sarah Grajeda, anatomy major, wasn’t aware that there was a policy outlining priority enrollment but thinks that the school should publicize it more.
Before any changes are made, Faculty Senate has to come to a consensus. Then it will be forwarded to Student Government and once it passes, it will make its way to the Coordinating Committee where, according to Moore, is where a decision is made.
