After a week of delays in senior fresh module enrollment, many students have expressed anger and frustration with the Academic Registry (AR) and their departments.
Initially, online module enrollment for senior fresh students was due to open on September 21 and run until October 4, with enrollment for junior fresh students to open from September 28 and October 4.
However, the opening of the system was pushed back to September 23, and then pushed again to September 25.
Many Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) second year students have been left without access to a timetable 72 hours before classes are scheduled to begin. Trinity News spoke to a number of students about the ordeal this afternoon.
One English and History student called the situation “a fucking joke”, following this morning’s enrollment opening at 11:30 am, as opposed to 11 am, as stated in an email to students.
“It’s personally quite upsetting, it feels as if nothing’s been genuine in terms of communication,” the student continued. “I understand the frustration from the transition into online learning, but no communication being made is incredibly stressful to the students.”
The student said they feel that they “haven’t been kept in the loop at all”, and that AR and the department’s communication with students has been “lacking”.
They added: “I experienced a case where I was bounced back and forth between different departments when I emailed a few weeks ago. The first come, first served nature of the selection didn’t affect me, but the fact it affected anyone when we are working remotely is laughable to me.”
“In my mind, they should be able to raise numbers for modules in the situation that we’re in,” the student stated. “Placing already stressed out students in a pressure cooker type situation to select modules did not help the situation at all.”
When asked if they felt angered or upset with events over the past week, they continued to explain that they “feel pretty frustrated”, as several emails they sent to departments and AR received no reply, and “it felt like they were sticking their heads in the sand”.
A music student expressed similar frustration with their module selection, explaining that the music department had not properly allocated the right amount of credits to their compulsory modules.
Explaining the mishap, the student added that music students should have had “10 credits spare” to choose between two of three modules, while the system only allowed them to choose one.
“This means that although it says I have filled 60 credits, I am actually not enrolled in one of my modules,” they explained.
While amending that it was likely an accident because the module is only for one term rather than two, the student stated that “this is a bit awkward” for music students.
“It’s obviously frustrating that the enrollment doesn’t work properly,” the student continued. “The radio silence from both AR and the music department is what I’m angry about.”
Another senior fresh Irish and French student explained how frustrating the delays have been for students, starting with the postponement of module selection in February until June, then again until September, then from last week to this week, and from Wednesday to today.
“There was a big build up,” the student explained. “Everyone was sitting at their desks on Wednesday for a couple of hours, and it wasn’t working.”
The student explained that the Irish department “hasn’t contacted them at all” about anything regarding modules, and there has been no reminders for module selection either.
The student stated that while the French department has been in touch with students, they have provided them with “breadcrumbs”.
“Today we just wanted to pick our modules and get it done; then we go into the portal and nothing’s there.”
The student explained that they were “one of the lucky ones” as the portal started to work for them at 11:30, but many students have still not had the option to pick modules.
“Modules are first come, first served,” the student continued. “This means some students are going to get the last batch of modules, which is awful.”
When asked whether they were angered by the lack of clarity from both the Irish and French departments, the student said: “I’m more so disappointed, as this is meant to be the top institution in the country and they can’t organise for standard module selection.”
“I completely understand human error and the special circumstances, but this has been going on for literal months, since February,” the student continued.
The lack of clarity when it comes to module selection has wreaked havoc upon senior fresh students over the past week, but they are not the only students expressing their concern with a lack of appropriate timetables over the past few weeks.
One fourth year English student spoke to Trinity News today, saying that they have had “a lot of issues with timetabling” over recent weeks. The student explained how they contacted AR over a week and a half ago about a double scheduling of two modules at the same time, and they have not yet received a reply.
“People already feel so hopeless and confused about what college is gonna be like and it looks like Trinity is in the same boat,” the fourth year student added.
They continued: “Instead of pushing back our start date to give administration time to iron out a lot of the issues they have, they are expecting students to be fully prepared without giving them the proper to start the academic year.”
“Maybe it’s just that in a time when students need to be able to rely on administration and the academic registry the most, they are being given the least guidance yet.”
The student concluded: “The way trinity administration has functioned in past years has been shockingly sub-par, but during this year in particular with everything going on, they’ve managed to be even less helpful than ever before.”
