Managing Reserve Caps and Requisites in CourseLeaf CLSS
Overview
Purpose: This article describes how schedulers can use CLSS to manage class requisites and reserve caps on their sections, how to interpret the requisite and reserve cap interfaces in CLSS, and how to manage the list of reserve caps and requisites available to select for their department.
Definitions
Requisites refer to the requirements that a student must meet in order to enroll in a course. Catalog requisites are those established by the university’s curriculum governance process and cannot be overridden at the section level; you will notice that these are not editable in CLSS. Class requisites are additional enrollment requirements that can be placed on a section for purposes such as limiting classes to Honors students or regional campus students.
Reserve capacities (usually referred to as reserve caps or RCs) allow departments to reserve a certain number of seats in their sections for particular populations of students. For example, a department may elect to set aside some of their seats for students in a particular major, students on a particular campus, or a number of other criteria. Like class requisites, reserve caps represent additional requirements that students must meet to enroll - they do not replace catalog requisites.
The terms “reserve capacities” and “reserve caps” are typically the ones used at UConn, and while you may notice that CLSS uses the term “Reserved Seats,” please note that these terms are interchangeable and all refer to the same thing.
Distinguishing between reserve caps and class requisites
Reserve Caps | Class Requisites |
|---|---|
Can be set for some or all seats in a section. | Always apply to all seats in a section. |
Sections can have multiple reserve caps.* | Sections can only have a single class requisite |
Can be used to set aside seats for students in particular majors, programs, or cohorts. | Used only to limit sections to Honors or regional campus students. |
Dropped a few weeks before the start of the term. | Remain in place unless removed by the department. |
May not be used to override catalog requisites. | |
For multiple component (i.e. lecture/lab or lecture/discussion) classes, should only be added to the enrollment (non-lecture) section. | |
Should not be used if a section requires instructor or departmental consent. | |
* The sum of all reserve caps may not exceed the enrollment capacity of the section.
Instructions
Managing Reserve Caps in CLSS
Navigating the Reserve Caps Interface
The Reserve Caps interface in CLSS can be found directly above the enrollment fields in the Section Editor. When a class does not have reserve caps, this interface will read “Reserve Caps: No” with a pencil icon to edit reserve caps:
When a class does have reserve caps, this label will read “Reserve Caps: Yes.” The enrollment cap and wait list fields will also be grayed out as these fields are managed in the Reserve Caps interface:
When you select the pencil icon next to the Reserve Cap label, a new window will open allowing you to edit reserve caps:
The following fields are visible on the Reserve Caps tab:
The enrollment cap and wait list for the entire section.
The description of the reserve cap(s) applied to the course.
The number of seats reserved for that reserve cap.
A green plus icon to add additional reserve caps if needed.
Sections with reserve caps may NOT use wait lists as the combination of these two elements leads to serious enrollment errors and confusion among students.
The Current Enrollments tab includes information about the number of reserved seats, the number of unreserved seats, and the number of seats remaining in each of those categories:
Adding Reserve Caps
When you select the green plus icon to add a new reserve cap, the dropdown menu will be populated with reserve caps used by your scheduling unit:
This list should include all the reserve caps your department has used within the past several years but, if you need access to a reserve cap not on the list, please contact registrarscheduling@uconn.edu to request that the reserve cap be added.
To specify the number of seats to reserve, update the number in the Cap field on the same row as any reserve caps you have added.
The total number of seats for all reserve caps must be lower than or equal to the section’s enrollment cap.
Please note that when you add multiple reserve caps, it does not combine the criteria of each. For example, if you add a reserve cap for honors students and another cap for Communication majors, it will set aside separate groups of seats for each population; it will not limit enrollment to just honors Communication majors. If you need to combine criteria in this way, please contact the Registrar’s Office to create a new reserve cap.
Once a reserve cap has been added to a section, you will need to open the Reserved Seats interface to edit the enrollment cap for the section.
Updating Reserve Caps
To change the number of seats reserved for a particular reserve cap, simply adjust the number in the Cap field on the same row as the reserve cap. If you need to change the reserve cap on a class, it is best to delete the existing cap and a new row for the new reserve cap. See Dropping and Deleting Reserve Caps for more information about that process.
Dropping and Deleting Reserve Caps
If the trash icon is visible on a row, you can delete the reserve cap. However, once students who meet the criteria of a reserve cap have enrolled in the section, the reserve cap can no longer be deleted - the dropdown box will be grayed out and no trash icon will be visible. If you no longer wish to reserve seats for a particular population and cannot delete the reserve cap, you can drop the number of seats reserved accordingly.
Although it is permissible to drop the cap of a reserve cap all the way to zero, please keep in mind that doing so inactivates ALL reserve caps on that section. If a class only has one reserve cap and you no longer wish to reserve the seats, you can drop the cap to zero without risk.
Sections with Multiple Reserve Caps
If a class has multiple reserve caps and you want to leave one active while dropping the others, drop the cap of the group you wish to drop to match the number of seats taken by students who meet the reserve cap criteria.
For example, this class has an enrollment cap of 80 with 40 seats reserved for freshmen and 40 seats for sophomores:
If you wanted to release all the remaining seats reserved for sophomores and reserve them all for freshmen, first take a look at the Current Enrollments tab to see how many seats remain for each group:
In this view, you can see that only 20 of the seats reserved for sophomores have been taken. To reserve all the remaining seats for freshmen, go back to the Reserved Seats tab and change the sophomores group to 20 and then change the freshmen group to 60:
When you save the section, the values on the Current Enrollments will recalculate, showing that there are now 40 remaining seats for freshmen and zero for sophomores: