CLSS is now open for Spring 2026 Refine Mode. Please review cross-listed course caps and ensure room information is entered promptly to avoid scheduling issues.

Good afternoon,

CLSS is now unlocked and ready for you to enter changes in Refine Mode for Spring 2026 for all but a few departments. (You will know if you are one of those departments if you attempt to edit your schedule and are unable to. This simply means your schedule is still going through applicable workflows.) Please be sure to read the Important Information in red below, as this will impact every department.

Refine Mode is equivalent to what Rice previously considered "Round 2" of the scheduling process.  You will remain in Refine Mode – Publish Phase until 10/26/2025. You should have all changes made to your schedule by that time so that any remaining sections can make it through workflow before the ESTHER Course Registration Planner opens for undergraduate students.

Refine Mode Information

What Refine Mode means for all departments:

• You will not use the validate button to submit your schedule. Individual sections perform the validation task when they are saved.
• Changes to sections are validated and sent through workflow when each section is saved. All changes will be reflected individually on the schedule after they work through any workflow processes. In other words, if your section triggers a workflow, it will be sent through that workflow when you save it, so be cognizant of this.
• If you have a section that says it cannot be edited in this interface, you will need to email us the changes you wish to make. 

Important: Please review any and all caps on cross-listed courses, whether cross-listed with other departments or UG/GR Equivalents. Many of you added sections that were not cross-listed, and our office cross-listed them for you. We want you to make sure the max enrollment caps are set up the way you want them set up. Some of the caps are a little off because the cross-listing was not taken into consideration when the sections were added. If you do not review the caps, you may have problems during registration (e.g., over or under enrollment). Because it is not possible for us to know what these caps really should be, it is your responsibility to make sure the caps are correct. Please remember that the LEAD department must notify all cross-listed departments when adding new sections.

Room Availability - IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Three time slots are full

The supply of OTR Scheduled Classrooms for Spring 2026 during the following time blocks has been exhausted:

This means you will not be able to move a section requiring an OTR Scheduled Room into any of these time slots or update the room to an OTR Scheduled Room if the section is already scheduled in these time slots. Additionally, you will not be able to create a new section in these time slots that requires an OTR Scheduled Room.

If you already have a section scheduled in any of these time slots, you are unaffected by this restriction. However, if you need to update the schedule for any section or add a new section to meet in any of these time slots, you must supply a Department Controlled Room.

Action Required: Specify Room Needs for All Sections

Due to the anticipated room availability shortage during certain periods of the day and on specific days, we will run tests weekly to see if we have enough instructional space and identify solutions if we do not. We will also start assigning classrooms early. Because of this, it is extremely important that you enter in the Room Information for each section. (Leaving the room type at “Select Room Need” is not sufficient to request an OTR Controlled room.) Failure to enter this information may significantly increase the likelihood that you will not receive the size or type of room you’ve requested and may even require you to change the time of the class should no instructional spaces be available.

Upcoming Dates

• 10/26/2025: Final schedule due
• 10/31/2025: Course Schedule published, and ESTHER Course Registration Planner opens
• 11/17/2025: Registration begins

Other Information

• If you have new courses that need to be created, once we receive and process the paperwork, those courses will be available in CLSS the following day. Please give us some time as we receive these, as we are expecting several hundred requests over the next several weeks.
• If you had any sections that had a proposed non-standard meeting time, you would have already received an email if any requested times were denied per the Space Task Force (2013). If a meeting time was denied, we have removed the meeting time from the schedule and notified you. If you didn’t receive an email, then all your non-standard times were approved.

As always, the wiki/manual is available in case you need a refresher. If you notice something is confusing or is missing from the wiki, please let us know so we can add or correct the information. An OTR staff member would also be glad to come by if you would like us to assist you and answer any questions you might have.

For more information about Spring 2026 Course Scheduling is available here.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you...

Office of the Registrar

OTR Course/Classroom Scheduling Team

Jean Tarrats

Associate Registrar

713-348-8041

jt78@rice.edu

John Martinez

Catalog and Scheduling Assistant

713-348-8052

jrm7@rice.edu

Chris Higgins

Classroom and Scheduling Manager

713-348-8026

chiggins@rice.edu

Questions? Contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@rice.edu