When Boston University students log on to the Student Link to plan their classes each semester, they are warned — not just by friends about the difficulty of certain courses, but also by a message set in large, red type on the registration homepage:
“Holding a seat in a class for which you do not intend to enroll is prohibited.”
It is fairly common practice for BU students with early registration times to hold seats in a class for a friend. Students who hold a seat in a course have no intention of taking that course, but rather, will drop it when their friend goes to register so the seat their friend might never have otherwise gotten becomes available.
This practice is prohibited by the university, though BU spokesperson Colin Riley said the school has no punishments in place for students who hold seats for their friends.
“What we want to do is appeal to people’s good nature, sense of fairness, and recognize that there’ll be plenty of seats available if you just do that and don’t go trying to game the system,” Riley said. “If you’re looking at someone who pulled in particular classes that don’t fit in and they’re dropping them at a particular time, you can look at it and determine that.”
James Burton, a junior in the Questrom School of Business, said while he’s never had a problem getting into a class, he understands why BU would have this policy.
“I think that it’s pretty reasonable to not have people hold classes,” Burton said. “But maybe not to the point where people get like, expelled or something.”
Savannah Cardenas, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said although she thinks holding classes is an unfair practice, she doesn’t see any way the university can effectively prevent it.
“If you’re holding an upper level class that’s not your major, then it’s kind of like, sus,” Cardenas said. “But also like, you’re paying for these classes, you might just want to [take it].”
Riley said he doesn’t have an exact sense of how pervasive the practice is, but he knows it has had a real effect on students.
“It certainly prevents a number of people who otherwise would be able to register for a class they needed,” he said. “… Particularly if it’s a required course that’s only offered in one of the semesters, and it’s fitting in with the sequence where it’s the next prerequisite they have to take, [students] may have to go to the faculty member, it’s a little more cumbersome than it should be.”
Brianna Jackson, a sophomore in Questrom, said she thinks holding classes is definitely a problem, but that it’s really just the result of an inefficient registration system at BU.
“[There’s] the general problem, which is, I think broader than just people holding classes for each other,” Jackson said. “Everyone has issues to try to register for classes or constantly being in the classes [where they] don’t have the best professors. Maybe they can just go about it a little more efficiently.”
Maya Fajardo, a CAS freshman, said she understands why the university has the no-hold policy, but also understands why this could annoy some people.
“[It’s annoying] just because graduating on time is such a big thing with how much tuition is,” Fajardo said, “and kids obviously can’t get into every class they want.”
I am an CAS 2011 Graduate and this has ALWAYS been a problem at BU. I think one policy they should implement is that if anyone is caught holding a class, they should be unregistered from all classes and given the last time slot. I think that’s a fair policy.