Registration Waitlist Information for Faculty and Staff

The purpose of the waitlist system is to allow students to get in a queue for available seats once a course has reached capacity. Waitlisting also informs faculty and administration of course demand.

A registration waitlist is an electronic list of students who are waiting to register for a filled course. Students may sign up on a waitlist when they attempt to register for a section that has reached its capacity. The first student on the Registration Waitlist is notified via email when a space becomes available. This student then has a defined period of time, (24 or 12 hours depending on registration phase), to register for the section. If the student does not register for the section within the specified timeframe, they will be dropped from the registration waitlist for that section and the next student on the list will be notified.

Departments and instructors don’t need to do anything with the registration waitlist. It is handled electronically.

Departments may choose to manage their waitlists. If they want this ability:

  • The waitlist managers are required to attend training provided by the Registrar's Office.
  • They must publish their policy for managing waitlists on their departmental website so faculty and students may review them at any time.

No, students must meet the pre-requisite for a course before they sign up for the waitlist. They must also meet all course restrictions attached to the section before being able to add themselves to a waitlist.

A student may get on a registration waitlist at the time they attempt to register for a section that is full. When a student receives a Registration Add Error stating ‘Closed – Waitlist Available,’ they may select ‘WAITLIST REQUEST’ from the dropdown menu under Action.

a) Instructors may see a list of the students waitlisted for their courses by going to Web4U under the Faculty Services menu, and selecting the Summary Wait List page. Select term and CRN. If there are students on the waitlist a list of those students will be displayed. Return to the Faculty Services page to select a different term or CRN to display another list.

b) Within Banner, through job submission the class list SWRSLST, has an option to include students on the waitlist. Choose Y (yes) or N (no) to include or exclude the waitlisted students on the class list. The waitlisted students will be listed together for each CRN at the bottom of the report in alphabetical order with a status code of ‘WL’ for waitlisted.

c) Within Banner, through job submission the Waitlisted Students Report SWRWLST, has options to report on waitlisted students. Criteria allows reporting by College, Department, Subject, Course or CRN.

d) Via Web4u on the Faculty Registration Permits/Overrides page, faculty may see a student's schedule, including courses for which they are waitlisted.

a) The Enrollment Status Report SWRENRL, includes a count of how many students are waitlisted for each CRN. The report includes options to print courses with waitlist registration or those that are waitlist eligible. A download is also created.

b) The Waitlisted Students Report SWRWLST, has options to report on waitlisted students. Criteria allows reporting by College, Department, Subject, Course or CRN.

Students are not automatically registered for a class. They are notified via their WWU email account that a seat is available. Students are given a window from the time of notification to register for the class.

Students may register for more than one Registration Waitlist. There is no limit. However, we strongly urge all students to remove themselves from all registration waitlists once their registration has been finalized so that others may have an opportunity to register for available courses in a timely manner.

No, students must drop themselves to be removed from any registration waitlist.

Students are responsible for routinely check their WWU email. Students who miss the deadline must re-add themselves to the waitlist if they still wish to register for the course.

Once a student has signed up on a registration waitlist, they are not dropped from it unless they drop themselves. However, if they are notified that a seat is available in a section for which they have failed their in-progress prerequisite, they will receive a Prerequisite Not Met registration error and will not be able to register for the section.

No, students must register for all components (lecture and lab and/or discussion) of multi-component courses. They may sign up on the waitlist for a preferred section of a lab/discussion and ‘exchange’ it (drop the one they are registered in and add the one they want at the same time) if a space becomes available but they must register for all components initially.

Yes, students will be able to sign up for a waitlist that will cause a time conflict if they have the opportunity to register for the section. They will not be able to register for this section without resolving the time conflict. This gives students flexibility in creating a schedule.

No, students may only be signed up one time per section. If they are dropped from that waitlist or drop themselves from the waitlist, they may sign up again.

No, a registration hold will prevent the student from both registering for a class, as well as signing up for a waitlist. If a registration hold is put on a student after they have signed up on a waitlist, they will still receive a notification when a space becomes available but they will not be able to register for the course.

The new column in SFASRPO, Waitlisted, will indicate how many students are on the waitlist. Use the scroll bar to scroll to the right to see the student’s registration status. A status of WL indicates the student is Waitlisted in the class. To see a description of all registration status codes click on the drop down arrow under Registration Status.