Students will be able to reduce their course loads during the first week of classes fall term without forfeiting tuition dollars.
Anne Leavitt, vice president for student affairs, and Herb Chereck, University registrar, have submitted a proposal to eliminate the 15-percent tuition penalty for dropping a class during the first week of any academic term. The proposal, if approved, will be added to the University’s fee book for the 2005-06 academic year.
Members of the ASUO Executive, who had a hand in the policy’s formulation, said they
were pleased their campaign to abolish what they called the “sketchy scheduling penalty,” has been successful.
ASUO President Adam Petkun, who included the elimination of the penalty in his campaign platform, considers the situation a victory for students.
“One of the big keys here is that the first couple of days you can find out whether a class is going to fit into your life,” he said. “I think that today’s student has so many stresses beyond the classroom; this is a type of freedom we need to have.”
Administrators listened to the ASUO’s arguments and were willing to work with students to find a solution, Petkun added.
ASUO Public Relations Director Nathan Strauss said the approval process for the proposal is, at this point, a technicality.
“Everyone who needs to be on board is on board,” he said.
Strauss added that it’s exciting students can lobby and be successful in making a change at the University that benefits them.
Fees for dropping classes apply only if a student reduces the number of credits that he or she takes during an academic term. If a class is dropped and another of equal weight is added, there is no penalty.
Chereck said the primary reason the policy needed to be changed is the elimination of the tuition “plateau” for full-time students. The plateau allowed students to pay the same amount for a 13- to 16-credit term.
Although credits in full-time course loads are still subsidized, students now must pay extra for each credit.
“(The plateau) allowed students to do all kinds of dropping and adding,” Chereck said. Students are currently charged per credit, which means the penalty is more of a factor.
“One of the things I worked on with Anne Leavitt and Adam is a schedule that would allow students to drop and add with no penalty,” Chereck said.
Currently, students receive an
85-percent refund for dropped courses during the first two weeks of a term if those courses result in a lower credit load. Students receive a 50-percent refund during the third week, a 25-percent refund during the fourth week and no refund after the fourth week.
The proposed policy would establish a 100-percent refund during the first week of classes and a 75-percent refund during the second week. It would then follow the existing schedule. The proposal stipulates that individuals who withdraw completely from the University would be granted a 90-percent refund during the first week, then follow the same model as the policy for other students. Students would only be allowed to enroll in up to 18 credit hours until two weeks before classes begin under the new policy.
Administrators and ASUO representatives said they are interested in working toward making information about classes more available to students prior to registration in order to make it less necessary for students to rearrange their class schedules.
Chereck said the new policy would likely result in tuition revenue loss for the University, but the institution will benefit from students having another tool to complete their degrees in a timely manner.
“I think it will be good for
students,” he said.

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