Every fall, roughly 30,000 people flood the three UB campuses, many of which are still trying to get into a certain classes or are looking for a course to replace another.
Usually students have two weeks to make a final decision about their schedule. But this year UB, without much notice, decided to change the drop/add period. Not only is it shorter, but drop and add are on separate dates.
This year, students only have until Sept. 3 to drop courses and Sept. 6 to add courses. This causes unnecessary confusion and does nothing but hurt the students.
There are countless factors that go into whether a student will enjoy a class. The professor, the time, the students around them, and the workload are all prime examples of what can make or break a class for students.
The two weeks that students had previously was the perfect amount of time because it gave students a chance to go to several classes before deciding on what to do. Now with less than a week to decide whether to drop a class, the decision has been made that much harder.
Most professors don't do anything but go over the syllabi in the first class and can take a couple classes to get into the substance of the course. Unfortunately, now students do not have the luxury of waiting until the class finally gets going to decide if the material in the course is something that they can handle.
Every professor has a different teaching style and talks about different things in their class. It is vital that students get a taste of the professor's lecturing before making a decision on whether to drop a class or not. Thanks to UB, that is no longer possible.
This will force students into taking classes that might be overwhelming to them, causing students to get a lower grade just because they didn't have that extra week to shop for classes. There will be someone who wants to drop a course and someone who needs it, but since it's passed Saturday, they are out of luck.
Another problem with shortening the drop/add period is the fact that UB has already cut many courses, so the class choices are slim to begin with. This gives students less of a chance to get into the one course they may need because the single section is closed up and people don't have the time to decide if they want to drop it or not.
This becomes a problem for seniors who need to get into a course to graduate. A student might need a class that only UB only offers one semester and someone might want to drop it the second week, but now those students will be hung out to dry.
The faculty senate was responsible for the decision to shorten the drop/add period. They said that the period was too long and it made students fall behind. But what is worse, a student who wants to be in the class and falls a few classes behind or a student who ends up despising the course and end up getting an F on their transcript?
While this might make it easier on faculty and staff, this is a university; they should be trying to make the students' lives easier.
Email: Jameson.Butler@ubspectrum.com
