The first weeks of school are chaotic and stressful, particularly for students trying to adjust their schedules.

Trying to add classes after instruction has begun is often considered inconceivable in a university with more than 28,000 students.

But Sacramento State students LeChe Faulkner and Starshae Traylor have found that payment policy changes and misinformation have been just as detrimental to their enrollment into in-demand classes. Sac State alumnus, LeChe Faulkner was already miffed about having to pay graduate school tuition for “just taking a few (extra) classes” before starting graduate school at University of San Francisco. But a change in a payment policy, which dictates that students pay registration fees prior to adding classes, took continuing education even farther out of her reach.

“It didn’t use to be like that. You could add into classes, then pay your fees,” Faulkner said. “That was a better system.”

“If you didn’t pay your fees, you would be dropped from the class,” Faulker said. “In that situation, the only person you’d be hurting is yourself because you will have attended a class you now can’t get a grade for.”

Faulkner said she was unable to register for the classes she wanted during the appointed registration period because the tuition voucher issued by her employer, who she relies on to finance her continuing education, came late. She said her inability to register left the door wide open for other students to fill up the class rosters. Faulkner lamented that the current payment policy keeps her and other financially-strapped, but committed, students from getting into the classes they need. “I don’t have $1,300 I can hand over to Sac State and wait for my employer to reimburse me,” she said. “I don’t know many people who have money like that.” Sophomore biology major Starshae Traylor, a new transfer student, did not know that registering for classes required two steps. “I met with an academic advisor who told me about using Scheduler from the Sac State website,” she said. “My challenge is that I’m new. So I don’t know what’s going on here.”

Traylor said she was not told that to officially register for classes, she had to input class codes into her CasperNet account. “I did what I was supposed to do with (Scheduler) and thought I was done,” Traylor said. “When I showed up for the classes, that’s when I found out I wasn’t registered.” Traylor said she was disappointed to find that many of her would-have-been professors could not add her despite the misunderstanding because classes had already filled.

“I’m not even trying to get into biology classes anymore,” Traylor said. “I just want to get into some (General Education) classes.”

Former biology major Tiffanie Sherrer understood Traylor’s dilemma and considers the decision to forgo looking for an open biology class practical.

“Biology classes are always the hardest to get added into. Go to any class in session and you’ll see the room packed with people trying to add,” Sherrer said.

Because many of the required classes often build upon each other, it is not uncommon to see several students vying for empty spots that often don’t exist after regular registration dates, she said.

Graduate engineering major Dhvani Desai, an international student from India, said her experience with adding into her classes was not as difficult as she thought it would be. She said she was even going to be dropping one class because she did not want to attempt more than nine units this semester. Traylor found that adding into elective classes, for which demand is often lower, was also a lot easier for her. “I’ve been able to get into two classes I don’t need, but I’m still trying to get into a few other ones,” Traylor said. She is still attempting to find placement into open classes for Government 150, Chemistry 004 and Communications 005.

Marilen Bugarin can be reached at [email protected]