Last week, it was announced through an email that Emporia State will be switching to a new enrollment style that staggers how each classification of students can enroll and allows earlier enrollment times.

“We have talked about staggered enrollment for many years,” said Shelly Gehrke, assistant provost for enrollment management and academic success. “I think we just needed to understand the technology and how to make the technology work for us.”

Enrollment will open at 12:01 a.m. next Monday for seniors to allow them to have a better opportunity to get those classes that they need to graduate. It will open at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday for sophomores and juniors and at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for freshmen.

“We’ve been exploring the technology here and there and really dug into and realized wereally could do it,” Gehrke said. “The piece that we added was instead of just doing staggered. We also opened it earlier.”

The day you will enroll is based off of your current classification rather than what you are enrolling as, so current freshman will not be able to enroll until the last day, according to David Cordle, provost.

“It doesn’t depend on what you are registering for, it depends on what you are classified as,” Cordle said. “If you have less than 30 credits you are a freshman.”

This is the first time ESU has attempted staggered enrollment, as well as the 12:01 enrollment time, Cordle said.

“This is an experiment,” Cordle said. “We’ll know after we try it whether it’s a good thing or not.”

The staggered enrollment is something that upperclassmen will benefit from and that could potentially keep freshmen out of classes they need, according to Gehrke.

“Nothing was wrong with  the old system but there was an interest in giving the upper class students an earlier opportunity to enroll so they had the greatest chance to get exactly the classes they need for graduation,” Gehrke said.

So far there has not been students reaching out to tell either Gehrke or Cordle that they do not like this idea. It was voted on by a committee of two students who saw no downside to this project, according to Gehrke.

“It makes sense for the seniors to go first to make sure they have the classes they need to graduate on time,” said Tori Lafferty, junior communication major. “It’s a smart idea.”

Staggered enrollment may also provide an opportunity to clear up advisers’ schedule and help make them more available, according to Gehrke.