Deans respond to accusations of "Class reservations"

Dean Sobelson had this to say about recent "troubling student behavior during registration" in an email to all students:

"Students - Associate Dean Timmons and I have recently been alerted to the existence of some troubling student behavior during registration for Spring 2010 classes. It appears that one or more students may have taken undue advantage of their early registration privileges and "reserved" class spots for students who might not be able to register for those classes until late enough that the classes are closed. In both of yesterday's Deans' Fora, this issue was raised by some 2L's who believe they were unfairly deprived of the right to sign up for certain classes as a result of this behavior. We are currently investigating this matter. In at least one instance of which I have now become aware, I have invalidated a student's class registration that resulted from these practices. If anyone has any further information they would like to share with me about this practice or those who are engaged in it, I would be more than happy to speak with you about it. We are also working with the Registrars of the College of Law and the university to modify registration procedures to prevent this from happening in the future. We have asked the Registrars if it is possible to modify our software to lock down registration in classes that are closed so that "lurkers" cannot register. We are also hopeful that the upcoming changes in university software will allow us to create automatic waiting lists so that spots that open up after a class fills will automatically be offered to the first person on the waiting list. These efforts will undoubtedly take time to come to fruition, but I will keep you posted as things develop. We are also evaluating this behavior and similar practices to determine whether they are covered by the Pre-professional Misconduct provisions of the College of Law Honor Code (Section 6). If they are not, we will likely move to amend the Honor Code to make explicit the impropriety of such behavior. Regardless of whether it is currently covered by the Honor Code, the College of Law regards such behavior (by students on both ends of such "transactions") as improper and unbecoming for students who aspire to become members of the bar, as well as unfair to those students who lose class spots as a result of it."

What do you think? Is this an over-reaction or an appropriate response?