Registration is arguably the most stressful time of the year for most students on this campus. If you are anything like me, you go into every registration period with an idea of every class you want and how it will all amount to the perfect schedule. Unsurprisingly, things never manage to work out the way we design them. It never fails that either a course is canceled, full or has a waitlist that could be too long to have a realistic shot of joining the course.

The Senate of College Councils serves as the official voice for students in academic affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Over the past year, Senate has worked on several initiatives, such as restricting sensitive information in the UT directory and establishing a 30-day grace period for clearing financial bars in conjunction with the Office of the Registrar. The Office of the Registrar is committed to improving the registration system for students, and we are working with them directly to ensure student concerns are voiced during this process.

Waitlists are one of the first things you encounter when you register, but they often seem intimidating given the fact that you have no idea how long the waitlist may be when you initially decide to sign up. Senate hopes to advocate for showing the size of a waitlist before a student decides whether or not to join a waitlist for a course as opposed to the current policy, which only ends up showing you your place on the list once you join.

Class size relates directly to the waitlist issue since students often say that they wish they knew how many seats are available overall in a course before deciding to jump on a waitlist. Senate hopes to advocate for a system that will display the total amount of seats in a course so students can make more informed decisions about whether to join a waitlist. In addition to this, we plan on working to display the amount of remaining, available seats in a course on the registration page so that you can weigh your flexibility in joining other courses.

Senate hopes to continue to work on improving your academic experience on this campus through initiatives such as the ones listed above. Registration is something we all have to deal with during our time on campus, and we are committed to making this system as student-friendly as possible in the future. Registration should not be intimidating and stressful; it should serve as an opportunity to broaden your academic horizons by selecting your course load for the upcoming semester. Senate is committed to improving this system for you and for future students on the 40 Acres. We hope we can save you from one less registration-related headache.

Cavazos is a government junior from  Brownsville. Cavazos is the president of the Senate of College Councils and previously served as policy director. Follow the Senate of College Councils on Twitter @utscc.