Some "Authorization to Add" cards are provided along with class rosters for all instructors at the beginning of the semester. Additional cards are available in the Admissions and Records office. To add a class a student must take an add card signed by the instructor or department chair to the Admissions and Records office and pay the appropriate fees. Friday of the second week of classes during the spring or fall semesters is the last day students are allowed to add classes with an "Authorization to Add" card. In certain extenuating circumstances instructors may request that a student be added after the Friday of the second week by certifying that the student has been in attendance and completing an "Instructors Request for Late Class Add" card. Never give a student an add card with just your signature; these can be used fraudulently. Always fill in the student's name, the section, the course name and the meeting times.

Students are thus allowed to add classes during the first two weeks of a spring or fall semester or the first week of a winter or summer session. Instructors are expected to add students up to the limit set for their class. Students who attend class for the first two class sessions with the hope of becoming enrolled should be allowed to take the places of students who are enrolled but who fail to attend the first two class sessions.

It is school policy not to drop "no shows" until the end of the second class session. An exception to the previous sentence involves certain lab science classes for which a warning statement is included in the class schedule. The intent here is to enable an instructor to assign lab lockers and thus start the first two or three hour lab activity with a full complement of students. For these classes the instructor may add students to replace any students who are "no-shows" at the time of assignment of lab lockers.

Since it may occasionally happen that someone on your roster misses the first class session and then arrives late for the second class session, it is strongly advised that you delay adding students to replace "no-shows" until the end of the second class meeting. Otherwise you may end up with more students enrolled than you have seats.

Please consider that students coming directly from work to attend evening classes may be unavoidably detained due to unusually heavy traffic congestion during the first two weeks of school.

It is important that you give add cards to students according to priorities determined by school policy. School policy is that students whose names appear on the "waiting list" portion of the class roster (and attend the first class sessions) must be added to the class in their order on the waiting list before other student requests for adding the class are considered. When it is possible to add walk-ins that are not on the "waiting list," their order of adding should be determined by lot. It is fair to give priority to walk-ins that were there on the first day of class over those non-enrolled students who didn't appear until the second class meeting. You may not use pre-test scores, quiz results, personality, attractiveness, etc., to determine the order of adding students.

You may get tremendous pressure from students who want to add your course. There have even been cases where students wishing to add have attempted to bribe the instructor. Be firm. Take some pressure off yourself by referring students who have a problem with the enrollment procedures, the number of sections offered or the number of students allowed per section to your department chair. 

It is the policy of the SMC bookstore to not allow students to purchase texts unless they provide evidence that they are enrolled in the class. That is so there will be enough books for the students who are enrolled. Waiting list students will want you to add them so that they may purchase books. Unless you are certain you will have room in your class for these students, just tell them that it is school policy not to drop "no shows" so as to add other students until the end of the second class session. It is up to you as instructor to make a fair grading provision for those students who attend your class from the first session, but who are not able to become enrolled and purchase textbooks until after the second session.

Since the college is operating at full classroom capacity in the evening there is simply no place on the main campus in the evening to put more classes, and it is doubtful that additional sections will be added. However sometimes it's possible to help people. At least their pleas for additional sections will be passed along to someone responsible for deciding which courses are taught and how many sections of each are offered.