By Claudia Guerra

Students who wait to register until a day or two before classes start will not be able to enroll for the spring semester. Registration will end on Jan. 16, almost a week before classes start on Jan. 22, rather than on the first day of class.
Flex-term registration will also end early, but will open up again Jan. 22. Students who have already registered or are de-registered will be able to add or drop classes on Jan. 17 and 18.
All Dallas County Community College campuses will be open Jan. 12 to help students register, add/drop classes and pay for classes.
Assistant Director of Admissions Philip Bueno said the changes are good, because they allow time for the deans to do their job.
“It alleviates the problem of cancelled classes [on the first day]” Bueno said. “You’ll have that amount of time for the deans to go in and cancel classes that aren’t going to make [before the semester starts].”
Sharon Blackman, the DCCCD’s senior associate vice chancellor of education affairs, said the registration deadline was changed because studies have shown that students who don’t procrastinate perform better in the classroom.
“Nationally, it’s known that if you let students [register] late, they are not as successful as if you had an opportunity to work with them beforehand,” Blackman said. “No late registration is really designed to help students and start them off on a good foot.”
District officials said they have not received any complaints about the new deadline, but many students are still unaware of the deadline despite a district-wide email about it.
“I could have received an email, but they need to do a better job [getting the word out],” biology major RichardSwinton said.
Swinton proposed that the school should place posters around the campus for students who don’t check their email daily.
For Breeana Bridges, procrastinating has never been an option.
“I always register early because I don’t want classes to fill up,” she said. “I do a lot of research about my teachers. The people who register late probably get stuck in bad classes.”
Dean of Outreach and Student Development Dina Sosa-Hegarty said the early deadline should make registration smoother.
“We want to be a functioning office, so students can feel good about their enrollment experience and the efficiency behind it,” she said.