How the registration process will proceed remotely

By Paige Fleming | Published by March 20, 2020

As the COVID-19 outbreak progresses in the state of New Jersey, questions about how online registration and advisement will proceed remotely have revolved around the Kean community.  

Regarding registration for the Fall 2020 semester, students are encouraged to reach out to their academic advisors for a remote advisement session, beginning March 30, according to Director of Media Relations Margaret McCorry. The registration period has been pushed back in light of the Coronavirus outbreak to April 13, 2020, via KeanWISE.  

Most of the information regarding COVID-19 and Kean’s next steps can be found at the Kean Coronavirus Response FAQ page. McCorry suggests all students with questions regarding the Coronavirus consult this page.  

“The FAQ is continuously updated with new information,” she said.  

During this time, the One-Stop Service Center can be contacted at any time through their email regme@kean.edu.  

Jonathan Mercantini, Acting Dean for the College of Liberal Arts, said this situation is still ongoing, and students will be updated as more information comes in.  

“We are aware that this is a concern to students and faculty and we will be working carefully to make sure we are meeting the needs of our students,” he said.  

In other business, the University Senate was in the midst of addressing two major changes at Kean regarding class size for courses and the scheduling of courses. Faculty are concerned that since they have no input in class sizing or course caps, the students’ best interests are not being acknowledged.  

Prior to the current crisis, Kean moved scheduling ability—traditionally done at the academic program/school level—away from the academic schools and gave it to the Registrar’s office. This means that faculty will not have the power to decide what class size is best suitable for the class and their mode of instruction.  

“The faculty is underrepresented or unrepresented in a process that needs academic faculty input,” University Senate member Dan Gover said. 

Another prominent issue is a dispute with the Kean administration about who should define what best meets the needs of students academically: professors who teach the courses or top-level administrators. Gover believes that the administration is focused more on profit than student well-being.  

“When the class sizes are increased, what are the implications down the road for upper-level courses?” Sue Gronewold, a history professor in the senate, said. “Students will not be able to graduate if there are fewer classes available with increased class caps.”  

According to the University Senate, the Office of the Registrar is currently in charge of the upcoming changes to the scheduling process. This system excludes the faculty in a discussion on class sizing and course caps. 

Dr. Emily Filardo, a member of the executive board of the University Senate, said that discussion of these topics is in the works, but nothing is definitive yet. The faculty senate intends to meet via videoconference.  

“In planning for videoconferencing meetings of the Senate during this period, we will look into how we can make those meetings public so that other members of the Kean community can access them live,” Filardo said.  

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