Registration Information for Faculty and Staff

This page provides information about student registration for faculty and staff. Students should refer to Registration Information.

On this page:

  • How Registration Works: information about how and when students register, class requisites, and class permissions.
  • Your Class Roster: learn how to access and what's included on your roster, how and when to drop students for non-attendance, and how to review your waitlist.
  • Requests and Special Circumstances: learn about requests that require instructor approval, including permission to add your class late, requests to withdraw, and requests to audit your class.

How Registration Works

All class registration and schedule changes are completed online through MyCSULB Student Center:

  • Continuing students are each assigned a registration appointment time, which determines when they can begin to register for classes each semester.
  • New undergraduate students enroll during their Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) workshops.
  • Once enrolled, students may make changes to their schedules as needed until the last day of self-service registration. After self-service registration ends, registration and adjustments are by approval only.
     

Many classes, especially upper-division courses (numbered 300-499), require successful completion of prerequisites or satisfaction of other conditions for a student to be eligible to enroll. A prerequisite is a completed course or other measure of academic preparation which provides a foundation for the more advanced course. Information about requisites for each course (if any) are included in the course description in the CSULB Catalog.

By exception, the instructor and department may approve waiving the requisites for a class to allow a student to register. (For example, a student may request an exception if they completed the requisite at another institution, but it isn't recorded on their transcript before they register.)

There are specific circumstances in which permission to enroll may be required:

  • If the class requires instructor and department consent.
  • If the student has not met the requisites for a class, but the instructor and department approve waiving the requisites to allow the student to enroll.
  • If the student is an eligible undergraduate who has received instructor and department approval to enroll in a course numbered 500-599.
  • If the class is full (referred to as "closed"), but the instructor and department approve exceeding the enrollment limit to allow the student to register for the class.

In the above cases, the student will not be able to enroll until permission is granted. Permissions are granted by the department through the student administration system. Instructors can review class permissions through MyCSULB Faculty Center.

After the self-service registration period, approval of the instructor and department offering the class is required to add any class. Refer to "Permission to Add" in the Requests and Special Circumstances section for details.


Your Class Roster

The classes for which you're an instructor will appear in the My Teaching Schedule section of MyCSULB Faculty Center. (If a class isn't listed or if you can't access your online class rosters, contact your department scheduling coordinator.)

Your roster will update as students add and drop. The following information is included for each student enrolled in your class: their name, CSULB ID number, photo, pronouns (if selected), class standing, degree program, and the date they added your class.

Rosters are final as of the University Census, which occurs after the fourth week of classes (or proportionate for winter or summer terms).

Class attendance and/or participation are restricted to officially enrolled CSULB students and visiting students who are on your class roster. Students may only attend classes in which they are officially registered. 

Students are expected to attend classes. Class attendance and participation are necessary and important components of learning that affect all students in the class and are essential to achieving a course’s educational objectives.

Instructors may drop students for unexcused absences during the first two instructional weeks of the semester (or comparable time in special sessions). Per Policy Statement 22-02, instructors may drop students under the following conditions:

  • An instructor may withdraw a student who has never attended a class, if done before the end of the second week of classes.
  • An instructor may also withdraw a student during the first two weeks of classes who has enrolled in a course requiring "permission of the instructor," completion of prerequisites, or concurrent enrollment in co-requisites if the student has not properly secured this permission, satisfactorily completed the prerequisites before enrolling, or enrolled in the required co-requisites.

It is the student's responsibility to officially drop or withdraw from the class, and they should not presume that they will be dropped by the instructor. 

If a class is full when a student attempts to enroll, they may choose to be added to the waitlist for the class. Students who are on the waitlist will automatically be added to the class as seats (if any) become available. Because there's no guarantee that a student will be able to join the class, they're advised to have a backup option. If any students are currently waitlisted for your class, you can find their information in your class roster by selecting "Waiting" in the Enrollment Status dropdown menu.

Students can waitlist until the waitlist deadline for the term, which is approximately one to two weeks before the first day of classes. After the deadline, waitlists are purged and no longer used:

  • If you plan to use the waitlist to determine eligibility for enrollment after the waitlist period is over, you should save a copy of your waitlist.
  • You are under no obligation to grant priority to enroll to previously waitlisted students.

Requests and Special Circumstances

Some student requests require the approval of the class instructor. When a student makes a request that requires your approval, you'll receive an email notification. You can approve or deny requests by logging in to your MyCSULB Faculty Center or your administrative access to the student system and selecting Worklist.

After the second week of classes (or proportionate for summer and winter terms), approval of the instructor and department offering the class is required to add a class. Students are advised to contact the instructor to ask their permission to join the class late. If the instructor approves, then the student must submit a Permission to Add request online in MyCSULB Student Center. Once the student submits the request, it will be automatically routed to the instructor and to the department for approval.

After the second week of classes (or proportionate for summer and winter terms), dropping is no longer allowed. If a student no longer plans to complete a class, they need submit an online withdrawal request. Approval of the instructor and the department offering the class is required to withdraw. If their request is approved, they'll receive a W on their transcript for the class. 

During the final three weeks of classes, requests to withdraw are no longer permitted. If serious and extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control will prevent them from continuing in their classes and Incompletes are not possible, the student may request a catastrophic withdrawal. In addition to the approval of the instructor and department offering the class, catastrophic withdrawals also require the approval of the associate dean of the college offering the class as well as the Withdrawal Appeals Committee.

Prior to University Census, a student can request to enroll in a class on an Audit (AU) basis using the online process. A student who audits a class can attend the class without receiving a recorded grade or academic credit. To enroll in a class on an Audit (AU) basis, the student must first register for the class and then submit a request to change their grading option to AU. Approval of the class instructor is required, per Policy Statement 22-02.