Students with a slim course schedule can take advantage of the new Spring II semester option accessible on the MyBama Web site.

Spring II enables students to enroll in courses that last for 10 weeks, starting Feb. 15 and ending at the close of the semester.

Steven Oliver, SGA president, said in an email that Spring II is an excellent way for students to earn more credit hours after the semester begins.

“Our goal is to give students a resource to use if they want to increase their hours for the current semester,” Oliver said. “Many times prior to starting the semester, students think their course load might be more difficult than it turns out to be, [and] this program serves as a great resource for them to pick up an extra class.”

Rebecca Pow, associate dean of the college of continuing studies, said Spring II is a great opportunity for students who may have dropped a course and fell below full-time enrollment.

In addition, Pow said enrollment in Spring II has increased from last fall, when its pilot program was introduced.

“We have right around 150 students enrolled in Spring II, whereas in the fall we had about 80, and there are still several days left to enroll with more courses to be added,” Pow said.

Oliver said that most Spring II courses would be offered online so students can enjoy a measure of flexibility with their classes.

“Most of the classes offered through Spring II will be online, allowing students to put in the necessary time to complete them without interrupting their daily class schedules,” Oliver said.

Oliver also said subject areas participating in Spring II will most likely encompass more disciplines for future semesters.

“As more classes have the capacity to be offered online in the future, I believe that we will see the options of courses expand,” Oliver said. “We will continue to work with Academic Affairs and the Deans of each college to see how the list of courses can be expanded.”

On the same note, Oliver said student feedback has been positive so far.

“The students we have heard from have been thankful and excited for this option, and enrolling in these classes is easy,” Oliver said. “Enrollment works the same as signing up for regular classes through MyBama.”

Aaron Zucker, an SGA senator for the College of Communication and Information Sciences and a junior majoring in broadcast news, said enrolling in his history course, which was also a requirement to graduate, was as simple and straightforward as enrolling for any other class.

“I got dropped from one of my classes, and that dropped me to 12 credit hours,” Zucker said. “So I looked into the Spring II classes and talked to Steven about it, and I found that enrolling was just as straightforward as enrolling in any other class.”

Oliver said students interested in the Spring II semester option may want to contact the student receivables office since enrollment in Spring II impacts tuition and financial aid, just as a regular class would.

“Tuition and financial aid for the Spring II option operates just like when you enroll for a regular class at the beginning of the year,” Oliver said. “However, students need to double check with student receivables if they have any questions regarding fees, tuition, or financial aid.”

The student receivables website can be found at studentreceivables.ua.edu.