Some support services facilitate student learning in a very direct manner:

• Academic Advisement keeps students apprised of changes in the General Education curriculum, provides students with degree audits, keeps a record of students' academic advisers from their major and minor areas, and meets student demand for immediate on-site advisement.
• The Act 101/PACE program was created under the Higher Education Equal Opportunity Act of 1971, which mandates learning and special counseling services for undergraduate students whose cultural, economic, and educational disadvantages impair their initial ability to pursue successfully higher education opportunities. Act 101 students have low/moderate family income, academic profiles that are ineligible for regular admission, and Pennsylvania residency. PACE students meet all but the income criteria and receive the same services as Act 101 students.
• Career Services provides career development and job search services, including career counseling, workshop presentations, on-campus interviewing, and resume referral, to students and alumni.
• The Registrar's Office is custodian of student records, maintains the course catalog and class schedules, and provides transcripts. It also conducts registration, which greatly affects learning by shaping what courses students take and when.

  Unfortunately, registration is not perceived as a positive experience for many of our students. While our arena-style registration is in a convenient location and generally processes students more efficiently than in years past, many students are plagued by not finding open classes that meet their needs, interests, and desires. In a 1996 State System survey of 400 Millersville undergraduates, only 37% agreed that "registering for classes is easy," compared to 61% of undergraduates at other State System universities. Less than half agreed that they "can get the classes in their proper sequence to graduate on time," compared to 65% of undergraduates at other State System universities. And 44% said Millersville was worse than expected in having classes available when needed, compared to 34% of undergraduates at other State System universities.

  These findings were corroborated by a 1998 survey of college students by the Higher Education Research Institute, in which 52% of Millersville sophomores said Millersville has been worse than expected in having classes available during the semesters when they need them. Only 5% said Millersville was better than expected in this regard. (At Millersville, freshman register first, followed by senior and juniors, with sophomores registering last.)

  In response to these concerns, Millersville has increased its efforts to determine accurately the number of courses, sections, and seats needed each semester to meet students' needs. Our new Degree Audit Records System (see Chapter 4) has enabled us to determine the number of students who need certain courses such as English composition, speech, and wellness. Departments are also encouraged to include "shadow" courses in their schedules: tentative sections with room and faculty assigned, but not announced until needed.

  Millersville is planning to convert by April 2000 to voice-response telephone-based registration and eventually to Web-based registration. The voice-response system also will be available for accessing grades and other student information. While this will be more convenient for students than our current arena registration, these steps alone will not further improve the availability of needed classes.