Reserve Capacities
Tools & Resources
Reserve Capacities
Academic departments may restrict enrollment on course sections by certain criteria such as majors, minors, GPA, or academic levels. Schedulers do not have access to set reserve capacities themselves but can view the Reserve Capacity tab. Per department request, the Registrar's Office sets reserve capacities in the Maintain Schedule of Classes>Reserve Capacity tab in UDSIS. Departments who update enrollment caps should be mindful of the desired total number of seats they wish to be restricted in relation to the total enrollment. Reserve caps "roll" when the Registrar Scheduling staff roll the term, so it is important to verify reserve caps when setting up the schedule for each term.
How Reserves Work
Reserve caps can be built by individual criteria or by multiple criteria. Potential criteria include:
- Majors
- Minors
- GPA
- Academic Level – Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
- Student groups – email grading-registration@udel.edu for more information
Reserve cap can be built so that seats are reserved for one group or split up amongst different groups. They can be set for any number of seats in the section and do not have to equal the enrollment capacity. The sum of reserved seats cannot be greater than the enrollment capacity.
Reserve Cap Example
The English department would like to reserve seats for English majors and Journalism minors. The section has an enrollment capacity of 30 seats.
Option 1: The department wants specific numbers for majors and minors, so they request 20 seats be reserved for English majors and 10 seats reserved for Journalism minors.
Option 2: The department does not have a preference about how many seats are occupied by English majors or Journalism minors, so they request 20 of 30 total seats reserved for either English majors or Journalism minors.
Reserve Dates
Reserve caps have a “Start Date” which is the date they are activated. Start Dates are set the day they are placed by the Registrar’s Office.
Reserve caps can also be set to have an end date which is the day the reserve cap would be removed, and seats no longer reserved. End dates may be requested in advance at the time the reserve cap is set or any time during registration if the decision is made to open seats.
End dates will appear as a new row with the end date noted in the “Start Date” field and 0* as the number of seats held:
* If more than one reserve is in place on a section, such as Option 1 in the reserve cap example, a “1” must be used for the first reserve to prevent the second cap from being invalidated (unless both reserves are no longer needed).
How to Find Caps or Request New Caps
Existing caps can be reviewed in two ways using the Registrar’s COGNOS Schedule of Classes (SOC) Reports:
- To see current reserve caps on scheduled courses in any term run report S3
- To see already created reserve cap groups run report S12
When created, reserve caps are given a Requirement Group number that will appear on both reports. This number can be used when requesting reserve cap placement in the future.
If you do not see an existing cap that covers what you need you can email grading-registration@udel.edu to request a new cap be built.
How to Request Cap Placement
Reserve caps placement is done during course scheduling for the upcoming term. All initial reserve cap placement requests should be submitted at least two weeks prior to the start of registration for the term (as noted in the Academic Calendar) to allow time for processing. Additional requests may be submitted as needed if enrollment capacities change or additional sections are added. Requests to remove reserve caps can be submitted at any time.
Requests are submitted by course section and in the case of multi-component courses, only exist on the enrollment section of a course. Requests can be submitted to set reserve caps on a section that does not already have any, to adjust the number of seats held under reserve caps already set, or to adjust which reserves exist on the section. Report S3 mentioned above can be used to see which sections already have reserve caps in place.
To request reserve cap placement you can either submit the Course Reserve Cap Request form or submit a request for large numbers of courses via email in an excel sheet.
If submitting via excel (example below) make sure to include the term, course information, section, number of seats to hold, requirement group number (if known), end date (if applicable), and a written description of the group.
A new line should be used for each reserve cap, even those on the same section. Once requests are received, they will be set by the Registrar’s Office and the Registrar’s Office will respond via email to confirm placement. For any questions, please contact grading-registration@udel.edu.