Students eligible for priority enrollment, which opened at 8 a.m. Friday, experienced widespread technical difficulty that has prevented some from enrolling in courses for Spring 2021.
MyUH Self Service, the AccessUH feature that allows students to enroll in courses, has barred students from connecting to the application. The issues began when enrollment opened Friday morning but the problem has been resolved, said UH spokesperson Chris Stipes.
“We immediately began work to resolve the issue and the system was restored to full functionality within a few hours,” Stipes said. “We will continue to monitor the platform for any issues, but we are hopeful the problem has been resolved and appreciate the patience of our students who were attempting to enroll while it was down.”
The site crashes have caused widespread anxiety among students concerned about getting into necessary courses to finish their degrees.
Despite many students eventually being able to enroll, they are concerned that the delays may have cost them access to certain courses.
“I’m worried that I won’t be able to get the classes that I need to graduate,” said political science senior Andres Trevino.
Marketing and management junior Britney Balderas shares Trevino’s worries and has concerns that the delays could have already impacted her ability to enroll in classes she needs.
“Some of my classes that I need to graduate weren’t available and I feel it is due in part to not being able to enroll when I was supposed to,” Balderas said.
For one student, the process ended in tears.
“This was a horrible experience, caused me a lot of stress, a mini panic attack and crying session,” said political science sophomore Jesica Munoz. “This shouldn’t have happened. I’m pretty sure it causes many people a lot of stress.”
Students expressed frustration over the technical difficulties and what they perceived as the University’s lack of preparation for high traffic to the site.
“It’s frustrating because I’ve done this for like 7 semesters without issue only for this to occur now,” said biochemistry senior Jack Kent. “They should anticipate high traffic at these times, and when a problem like this occurs, the University should have communicated with students about what is going on and what to expect.”
The site issues are not shocking for some.
“I’m not surprised that UH isn’t on top of their stuff, but it’s very frustrating,” said acting sophomore Cade Coligan. “Disappointed but not surprised.”
For others, the delay has diminished the benefit of priority enrollment.
“It’s very frustrating, considering how much money I pay for them to not have the necessary technology to handle enrollments and also frustrating considering all the requirements us students have to maintain to stay in UH in 4 to get priority enrollment for us to not even be a priority anymore,” Balderas said.
