Priority registration is the golden ticket of college. The fast pass can possibly lead to  saving thousands of dollars in tuition by actually geting into the classes you need to graduate, before they fill up and aren’t available for another two years.

It makes sense for seniority to be the deciding factor for which students get to register when. Everyone eventually gets their turn at choosing first, and those with the least amount of time left in school have the most leeway in building their schedules.

What doesn’t make sense?

SMSU giving student athletes the upper hand over students that don’t participate in sports.

As an educational institution, SMSU’s first priority is the education of students, not sports.

While the athletic department does attract prospective students and bring in money for the school, they could easily achieve those things while waiting their turn in the academic line.

At the end of the day, if you take away sports you still have a school.

It should be acknowledged that athletes are given priority registration according to their grade, with senior athletes registering before the rest of seniors, then junior athletes registering before the rest of juniors and so on.

While this is redeeming, the fact remains that no department deserves special treatment over another.

If the English department suddenly became the number one factor for attracting prospective students and community members to SMSU, it still would be outrage if English majors were given priority registration over students with other majors.

I understand that student athletes may have more on their plate than the average student and that they need to schedule classes around their team’s practice and game schedule.

However, students of every kind have factors in their life that goes into building their schedules for future semesters.

If other students manage to balance school and the rest of their lives, shouldn’t student athletes be held to the same standard?

Beyond this, not everyone who does not participate in sports do so out of choice. There are those with physical, financial or other limitations that do not allow them to be a student athlete.

Is it moral for athletes to have priority in registration over students of this nature?

Student athletes are students first and athletes second. Priority registration on the basis of sport participation is unfair and unreasonable.