Waitlists: Faculty Guide
Automated class waitlists are enabled for most courses.
Students are automatically notified by email when a seat opens. They have 72-hours to register for the seat or they forfeit it to the next student.
Class waitlists cannot be overridden until they are released by the Registrar's Office.
Waitlist Release Dates
Summer Class Waitlists to Open May 5
We are testing some changes to the course waitlist process for summer 2026.
- We will release summer waitlists to departments on May 5, before classes begin.
- The Closed/Full Course Override will be available starting May 5.
- Automated waitlisting notifications to students will remain active until May 15.
These changes allow departments to manage enrollment for high-demand courses earlier if they wish, without impacting those who rely on waitlist automation.
BUT...BEWARE OF SEAT STEALING.
What is seat stealing? I'm so glad you asked...
**Tentative**
Autumn Class Waitlists to Open August 15
**Tentative**
This date will be confirmed in June. Check back here for updates.
Why can't a student waitlist for a class?
It's a linked course.
Courses with multiple, linked sections are tricky to manage. Waitlists are turned off for most lecture courses with linked sections. This is a functional requirement to avoid waitlist sync problems.
Enrollment capacities should be set so that if a seat is offered in a linked section, the student will also be able to register for the lecture section.
It's a graduate course.
Graduate level courses are not necessarily set up for automated waitlisting.
To turn on the waitlist for your course, please contact your department administrator or chair who can submit the change in our CourseLeaf CLSS system.
It's after the deadline.
Students cannot add to waitlists after the first couple of days of the term.
There's a prerequisite or another registration error.
Time conflicts and link requirements won't prevent a student from waitlisting for a class, but most other registration errors will.
Prerequisites, campus/college restrictions, consent of instructor requirements, class standing restrictions, etc. must be resolved before a student can add to a waitlist. You can issue overrides as usual to allow a student to add to the waitlist.
Avoid Stealing Seats
Hey! Where'd my seat go?!
Granting Closed/Full Course Overrides before classes start can unintentionally "steal seats" from students who were already notified that they could register.
If another student uses a Closed/Full Course Override to register before the notified student, the notified student won't be able to register.
How can I avoid that?
The easiest way to avoid stealing seats is to also grant a Closed/Full Course Override to the notified student.
Keep your capacity in mind as you grant overrides. We may not be able to find an alternate classroom if your section becomes overbooked. For questions about capacity or room layout, please first refer to the Facilities Services Classroom Layouts. Further questions can be directed to Facility Services.
If there are multiple notified students, we recommend that you closely monitor your class registration. If the remaining seat count drops to zero and there are still notified students who have not exceeded their expiration date, grant Closed/Full Course Overrides to those remaining notified students.
Timing and communication is key!
How do I know if there are notified students?
From your Class List in GrizPortal, toggle to the Waitlist tab.
Notified students display as Waitlist Position 0 with their notification expiration date.
Banner users can view notified students in the Banner form SFIWLNT: Waitlist Notification Query. They display as pending.
Oh no - I accidentally stole a seat. What do I do now?
Students aren't thrilled to be told they can add a class and then discover they can't. But nobody is perfect.
If you can accommodate adding an extra student, let them know what happened and grant them a Closed/Full Course Override to allow them to register.
If you absolutely cannot accommodate an extra student, you'll need to get creative. Talk through options with the student and your department chair.