Dean of the College Ethan Pollock encouraged students to pre-register for all courses they intend to take for the upcoming academic year in a Tuesday Today@Brown message. The guidance follows the February announcement that enrollment for all courses will be capped due to decreased classroom space for the 2026 -27 year.
The lack of space stems from the closure of 10 Barus and Holley classrooms that have been closed since the Dec. 13 shooting.
In Pollock’s announcement, he explained that the Office of the Registrar determined the caps using historical data on each course’s enrollment numbers. “Wherever possible, this has included leaving room for growth in enrollments during the shopping period,” he wrote.
In an interview with the Herald, Pollock explained that, in general, the Office of the Registrar has tried to overestimate the number of students in a given class when assigning the enrollment cap. “If a class has historically had 150 students in it, the registrar is not going to cap it at 150. They’ll cap it at 180 or something, knowing that that’s going to probably be robust enough to meet capacity,” he said.
A common registration strategy for students has been to only pre-register for capped classes, knowing that uncapped classes are more likely to be available during general registration, Pollock said. “Now, because of size restrictions, that probably is not the most advisable approach,” he added.
He emphasized that the University wants to maintain the traditions of the Open Curriculum and shopping period. “I think for most students, they won’t recognize this as terribly different from what they’ve done in the past,” he added.
Pollock estimates that “well over 90%” of classes will not be significantly impacted by the revisions to scheduling.
The deadline to add or drop courses and shopping period will remain unchanged, as “the first weeks of class will still include plenty of adding and dropping of classes as students navigate the curriculum and determine which classes fit their particular interests,” the announcement reads.
Pollock said that he has been in communication with faculty regarding the changes. “For the faculty it was a little bit new,” he said. “They’re used to being able to teach classes that are open to anyone and they have to now trust that the registrar is assigning a room that actually meets the capacity of their class historically,” he said.
Faculty will still be allowed to give students override codes to register for classes once the cap has been met, but are advised to “make sure that the enrollments in their classes meet the room caps,” Pollock said.
According to the announcement, Pollock is also encouraging faculty to make their syllabi available through Courses@Brown before pre-registration, even if it is a draft or a version of the syllabus from the last time the professor taught the course.
Pollock said he believes that Fall 2026 courses will be visible on Courses@Brown in the next few weeks.
Jeremiah Farr is a senior staff writer covering university hall and higher education.
