UPDATE: This editorial originally listed the Bradley Speech Team as a group that receives priority registration. This information was inaccurate, and the editorial has been edited below to reflect that.
Registering for classes is the college equivalent to the Hunger Games. With prerequisites to meet, limited classes to choose from and even less seats available, the ability to register as soon as possible is always an ultimate goal.
However, a solid portion of campus doesnt need to concern themselves with these anxieties simply because they are within one of the following groups of priority.
ROTC, athletes, honors students and students needing special accommodations all get a jumpstart on registering while the majority of campus has to wrestle for classes with those in align with their class standing and GPA range.
Honors students and athletes are somewhat understandable. These students took it upon themselves to increase their workload, and the university needs certain perks to encourage potential recruits to continue to join their programs.
But many groups on campus juggle strict deadlines and would benefit from early registration. They aren’t given the same opportunity.
And while validation of the added barriers faced by students with special accommodations in the classroom is necessary, it shouldnt include privileges before the first day of class even begins. Bradleys acknowledgment and willingness to help such students is commendable, but this gesture went too far and the two simply do not equate.
Quite frankly, its difficult to comprehend how registering early is in any way easing those with special accommodations. Having the first pick of classes and having ADHD are not comparable. Additionally, those with test anxiety are not alleviated from that by selecting classes before all others.
In a perfect world, (and yes, Bradley should strive to be a perfect world) priority registration isnt allowed for anyone. Its a sensitive subject and stressor for everyone, but anyone who can abuse the system will. In order to keep it from becoming a problem, some of those groups must be eliminated.
It would be interesting to know the exact percentage of campus that is considered more elite than the 4.0 senior. Were positive hell would be raised if these issues are addressed, but they must be.
The speech team doesn’t have priority registration… I would know, I’m on it. I’m sitting in the team suite right now, and I asked all of my teammates. None of us have priority registration because of the team. Also, the author probably just doesn’t know anyone on the team or they would understand the enormous workload our coaching, practice and travel schedules put on us. Some other universities actually pay their speech team members small salaries because the hours put in each week are so abundant that they’re the equivalent of a professional job. Those teams aren’t even as successful as Bradley’s team historically is, and continues to be. We put more hours in than the general student body has any idea of, which is by no fault of their own. Speech is weird and most people just don’t understand what goes into it, or what tournament days look like. It is not the job of students to know everything about the team; I certainly don’t know a lot about our athletics programs. However, I think this article would have benefitted from a better understanding of the speech team in general.