Waitlist Overview
Courses do not automatically have a waitlist, instructors and departments can decide which courses should offer a waitlists. If you have added a waitlist to your class, once the maximum capacity for the course is reached, students can add themselves to the waitlist. Once a spot opens up, students have 24 hours to add the course.
Waitlists enforce all of the same requirements as regular course registration such as pre-requisites, co-requisite, major restrictions and any other restriction added to the class with the exception of day/time conflict.
Students are not allowed to be on multiple waitlists for the same course, so they must choose the one course they really want to be in, this helps departments to understand the accurate demand for course sections.
Managing your waitlist before the term begins
If you have set up your class with a waitlist, pre-term management is hands free for you! You should encourage students to place themselves on the waitlist and check their pdx.edu email account daily to watch for an email that a spot has opened up. The student has exactly 24 hours to register once a spot in the class opens up, and if they miss their window it will be given to the next student on the waitlist.
Since the waitlist notification is automated, it is not possible for you as an instructor to bypass the waitlist and move students into the class administratively prior to the first day of the term. The waitlist is a first-come-first-served process that provides open seats to waitlisted students in the order they added themselves to the waitlist.
Managing your waitlist once the term starts
The automated waitlist notification process is turned off on the first day of the term. This gives you control over course enrollment and allows you to prioritize students with special circumstances. While students can continue to add themselves to the waitlist through the first week, they will no longer receive automated email notifications when seats become available.
To manage waitlisted students once the term begins, you have two options:
- Electronically via the Registration Approval Tool: Use the new Registration Approval Tool in your myPSU to grant students permission to register. Please note: your approval does not register the student; they must still log in to myPSU to complete their registration.
- In-person via Special Registration Form: If you are teaching an in-person class, you may sign a Special Registration Form. Please specify that you are overriding the waitlist in the 'Override Type' field before signing or initialing.
Waitlisted Students and Canvas
Students who are still on a waitlist when the term begins will have ‘View Only” access in your Canvas course environment so they can see the syllabus, course materials, and understand the expectations of the course. They will not have full access to participate until they are fully registered for the course. If you choose to grant them full access manually in Canvas, that does not mean they are actually registered for the class. Instead, if you want to give them permission to be in the class, you should give students permission to add your course electronically using the Faculty Registration Override function in myPSU.