In an effort to help displaced students affected by the 2005 hurricane season, Florida A&M University officials extended the admission and re-admission deadline for the Spring 2006 semester to Dec. 9.
“As a University exemplifying excellence with caring, both current and potential new students will have extended time to complete essential components of the admissions and enrollment process,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Vincent June in a press release.
The previous deadline for submitting applications was Monday.
Though the admission deadline has been extended, the deadline for registering for classes will remain Jan. 11, 2006. However, in order for students to register for classes, all financial debts must be paid to the University.
“It will help students. I think a lot of the things the Bryant administration has done are student oriented, as opposed to past years,” said James Scarborough, 22, a senior English student from Atlanta. “Whenever you come into a new system you always need time to get acclimated.”
In Scarborough’s view, the extended deadline gives students who are new to campus-whether they are freshmen or transfer students from the Gulf Coast region-an opportunity to meet with their advisor and learn the “ins and outs” of their major.
While the delayed enrollment date will not affect currently enrolled students, the press release asked students to take advantage of registering for their classes early.
“We strongly encourage students to take advantage of early registration to avail themselves of a broader range of course selections,” said Debra Austin, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Although she has registered for all her classes for next semester, Antionette Suer said OurFAMU and the financial aid office must become more organized so students can register when they would like.
“(Some students) can’t register for classes because their financial aid needs to be paid for this semester,” said the freshman criminal justice student from Fort. Lauderdale.
“They need more faculty members working in the financial aid office-it’s just too slow-they are too far behind.”
“Some people are going to register (early) to get the classes they want to get out of the way,” said Suer, a freshman criminal justice student from Fort Lauderdale. Suer admitted to previously not knowing there was a deadline for submitting applications to the University or for registering for classes.
Lauren Darensbourg, who has already registered for all her courses next semester, believes the application extension is in some ways allowing students to procrastinate.
“It basically says you didn’t meet the first deadline and it’s okay,” said Darensbourg, 21, a senior biology student from Atlanta.
“You don’t get that in the real world. When you get a deadline for something it (should be met.)”
Scarborough said he believes student procrastination-whether it is waiting until the last minute to write a paper or registering late and requiring overrides- will continue because no one gets punished.
Students who have not registered are advised to contact their academic advisor and review their financial standing on OurFAMU before registering.
Contact Will Brown at wwbrown19@yahoo.com