Overtally Approach

WHY DOES CE HAVE ITS OWN OVERTALLY POLICY?

The enrollment in the CE program has been steadily increasing over the years, and many of the classrooms on campus are not large enough for the number of students who want to take the class. To address this, the CE Program now closes many of its classes before they are full, so that we can set aside seats for graduating seniors and determine whether we can fit the remaining students into the existing sections or if we need to open up a new section. Students request one of the remaining seats by filling out an online overtally form.

For courses that many students repeat, we use they overtally to fill the seats to ensure that students who are taking the course for the first time have priority for the section they want over students who are repeating the course. This pertains mainly to CE 231 and CE 332. We have to do this manually (i.e., through the overtally) because CUNY First prioritizes students with more credits (i.e., those students who have already attempted the class once) for registration. As a result, some CE students who have never taken or attempted one of these courses before are unable to register for the course.

After hearing many grievances about these problems, the CE department implemented an overtally method to reprioritize students for registration. The overtally is intended to be fairer than CUNY First. Now, CE students who have never taken a particular course before, who require the course sooner than other students because of their specialization, and who are in good standing and have no stops on their record, have the highest priority for the remaining seats available. Available seats will be filled in order of priority, which is described next.

THE CE OVERTALLY POLICY

Warning: If there is a suggestion of dishonesty in how an overtally form is filled out, the student will be asked to explain the matter. If it is truly a matter of dishonesty, the student will be placed to the bottom of their priority group.

Within each subgroup, students will be ranked by the order in which they overtallied.

1^st:      Graduating seniors

CE students in good standing, with no stops on their record, and:

2^nd:     Who are taking the course for the first time and who were on the waiting list during the previous semester(s).

3^rd:     Who require the course as a pre- or co-requisite for a specialization course they plan to take this or next semester.

4^th:     Who are attempting to register for the course for the first time.

5^th:     Who have started the course a maximum of one time but withdrew from or got a failing grade in the course.

6^th:     Who have withdrawn from or got a failing grade in the course more than once – the larger number of withdrawls and fails results in lower priority.

All other students who are in good standing, with no stops on their record, and:

7^th:     Who require the course (i.e., the course is required in their curriculum).

8^th:     Who do not require the course (i.e., the course is an elective in their curriculum).

Other factors that will be taken into consideration when setting priority, include:

• International students who need to be registered full time
• Students on financial aid who need to be registered full time