October 2011
news / sports
the stentorian I ncssm
Students and faculty reflect on success and
problems of self-enrollment
By: Caroline deSaussure
The launch of self
enrollment over the summer
of 2011 gave students more
liberty in scheduling their
classes and was considered
an overall success by the
Registrar, Kathleen Allen.
The self-enrollment pro
gram was designed to make
the process of registering for
classes more efficient and
more personal to each individ
ual student. Students are now
able to choose what blocks
their classes will meet and
will potentially be able to give
themselves an ideal schedule.
“I got to make my third
trimester schedule work with
the sport I’m in. I have early
outs, so now I won’t have to
miss class for softball,” says
senior Kelly Bates.
Academic Programs decid
ed that it would be too risky to
open the portal for class regis
tration to all 680 students dur
ing one time period for fear of
a system crash. One hour reg
istration periods were assigned
randomly to all students, be-
giiming at 7:00 a.m. and con
tinuing until 11:00 a.m..
Many students felt that they
had a disadvantage if they were
assigned a later time period
to enroll, but in reality, the
process was entirely random.
Most students, even in the
11:00 a.m. enrolment period,
were successfully enrolled into
the courses they had requested
at the time they had requested.
“I felt disadvantaged
because I was in the second
registration block. Although
I got all the classes I wanted,
I had no option but to choose
undesirable blocks, such as the
notorious B, because everyone
had already taken the good
ones,” said Jeremiah Collins.
“If we had the capacity and
confidence that the system
would not have crashed, there
still would have been students
that would not have gotten
everything they had wanted,”
Allen points out. The creation
of registration periods was
considered the best decision
to get all students enrolled as
efficiently and painlessly as
possible.
One problem that students
during the first registration
period at 7:00 a.m. faced was
finding the link to the self
enrollment system on Focus.
“I was worried that they
would open the next group at
the same time and I wouldn’t
get the classes I wanted,” said
Alyssa Ferris.
When problems arose,
students could email the
selfenrollmenthelp@ncssm.
edu address. This allowed
Allen and the rest of the team
to solve the problems and
respond to students promptly.
Allen said, “The whole
team from Academic Programs
came into the office early and
set up so that we would be able
to handle any questions sent to
us quickly and promptly.”
In fact, parents and students,
communicating through social
media such as Facebook and
the parent journals, identified
the glitch and contacted the
school with their solution just
as the resolution was being
implemented.
Allen was amazed at the
team work and cooperation
present throughout the
process. She stated, “It’s the.
NCSSM community. We’re
all a part of this, and we’re all
going to get it right.”
Because seniors are
familiar with unusual
format of the NCSSM class
schedule and the graduation
requirements, self-enrollment
proved an easier process.
Juniors had to fill out a self
registration form on Welcome
Day, which “we hoped it
would familiarize them with
the schedule. The class of
2013 actually didn’t seem
to have any more problems
with self-enrollment than they
would have had simply filling
out the form,” said Allen.
Junior Trey Faddis said, “It
was easy once I got the hang of
it. We did so many trial rounds
that I wasn’t sure which one
actually counted, though.”
The hope for the future of
the self-enrollment process is
to reduce the manual review.
The Academics Programs
team put over 356 staff hours
into auditing every schedule
to ensure that everyone had
the proper prerequisites and
graduation requirements.
“We still have some
programmatic work to do.
We’ll always audit each
schedule, but a better program
may find more errors with
schedules to make things go
faster,” said Allen.
Despite the small glitches
in the self-enrollment, students
and faculty seem to be gener
ally happy with the results.
“The thing that thrilled me the
most was the ‘we’re all in this
together’ attitude. Even stu
dents who didn’t get what they
wanted did not get an attitude,”
stated Allen.
Students prepare for winter sports
By: Ahmed Zaeem
plans
continued
from page 1
about issues concerning the
school and voice their concerns
via the Let’s Talk Booth,”
expressed Michael Robinson,
the Chair of Student Affairs
Committee.
There are plans to increase
the communication between
our campus and our sister
schools throughout the country
that are a part of the National
Consortium for Specialized
Secondary Schools of
Mathematics, Science,
and Technology. This may
potentially lead to NCSSM
hosting representatives from
the other schools to come visit
our campus.
SG will, continue sponsor
campus traditions such as Mr.
Uni, Powder Puff Football,
and the senior breakfast. They
also plan to create fun bonding
activities for students like the
lock-ins and field days.
The fall spirit week this
year was a new idea that SG
implemented. They are also
working on the art mural
project, collaborating with the
Future Business Leaders of
America to make changes to
the student store, and creating
a day for seniors where they
can get out of classes to work
on college applications.
To find out more information
about SG and its plans for this
year check out their website at
www.ncssm.edu/SG.
“Please put us to work. We
have a lot to do, but we always
want more!” stated Fowler.
Thinking about playing a
varsity sport in the winter?
NCSSM offers six different
varsity-level sports during the
winter. Because there are no
intramurals second trimester,
many students turn to diving,
swimming, indoor track,
cheerleading, basketball, or
wrestling. Varsity-level sports
are a time commitment and
require a lot of dedication, but
are rewarding and satisfying
for their participants.
NCSSM’s diving team is the
“best kept secret,” according to
senior Bronwyn Fadem. The
coach is Beau Bunn, who is
also an assistant coach at Duke
University. Last year, there
were six members on the very
successful team. Fadem won
first place at the regional meet
and second place at the state
competition. Diving is for both
men and women.
Swimming is offered for
both men and women. The
coaches are Mike Newbauer
and Anna Shepherd. There
is usually a good number of
people who participate, and
this year they have a very
large turn out. Last year,
both teams sent swimmers to
the regional and state finals.
Nick Lehman is the
distance coach for winter
track, which is often used to
prepare for spring Track and
Field. However, there were
not many runners last year
and the team only went to
two meets. Regardless, the
NCSSM Indoor track team
still came in first at states.
Sprinter Bailey Ogle says,
“Indoor track was good for
me. It was fun and we still
got to train outdoors.”
Cheerleading in the *
winter is for the Men’s
basketball team. The head
coach is Emmie Corl,
who kept a small squad of
around ten members last
year. During the 2010-2011
season, the cheerleading
squad performed at the NHL
All-Star Game in Raleigh.
NCSSM has both ^
a women’s and men’s
basketball team. The coaches
for the women’s team are
Coach McDonald and Coach
Swimmer holding a medal after regionals Courtesy of Garrik Gan
NCSSM cheerleading team
Wroblewski. They had thirteen
players last year, one of which
made All-Conference and two
made All-Conference
Honorable Mention.
Last year, the Lady
Unicorns had a winning
season, but lost in
the first round of the
playoffs. Many seniors
are optimistic about this
year’s team because
of new coaches and
anticipation for junior
talent.
The NCSSM men’s
basketball team is
coached by Anthony
Myles. They had fifteen
players last year, one
of which made the
All-Conference team.
Although they only
won three games last
Courtesy of Lauren Knox
year, senior Brian lezzi thinks
that this year’s team looks very
promising. The juniors have
already begun to stand out
and the team seems to have
potential to make it further
than in recent years.
The men’s wrestling team is
coached by Brian Suvick. Last
year, there w'as around fifteen
members (mainly Hill kids,
but don’t let that discourage
Huntians). The sport is
individual by weight class;
NCSSM’s Glen Nichols won
the state title for his weight
class.
Senior Whitman Groves
says, “I loved wrestling
because it kept him in shape
during second tri.” Many
seniors are excited about the
program because there has
been a lot of junior interest.