Students who make a habit of resigning classes after the drop/add date may find themselves in poor academic standing if a policy proposed at Wednesday's meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee goes into effect.
William Baumer, chairman of the grading committee, issued a proposal to limit the number of resignations (R's) an undergraduate may take.
"The average student takes on 2.5 R's," Baumer said. "Few take more than five. However, there is a very small group that takes R's by the bucket full."
Currently, students may resign from any course during the first eight weeks - 10 weeks for freshman - but cannot resign from more than 25 percent of the classes for which they register over the course of their undergraduate career without being placed on academic probation.
According to Baumer, some students abuse the policy, and the grading committee found it necessary to limit the number of resignations a student may take to five. He noted that several hundred juniors have resigned from five or more courses.
The limit was "a suggestion from various people who have looked at patterns of resignation and have concluded that this would be a reasonable limit for most students," said Baumer.
Baumer was in favor of limiting the number of resignations on the grounds that when students resign from classes after the drop/add date, seats in classes are wasted that could have been filled by students who wanted to take the classes.
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Kerry Grant said he agreed with Baumer's proposal.
"While few students use an R, those who use them do so excessively," said Grant.
Baumer said if his committee's proposal is approved, it would not affect current students with five or more resignations on their transcripts and would not be applied to administrative withdrawals.
The FSEC also voted in favor of the academic calendar proposed by Grant at a Sept. 4 meeting. Some of the members were concerned about Thursday classes only meeting 14 times when state law requires a 15-week semester.
Two different interpretations of this law were discussed at the meeting: the current proposal, which includes 15 weeks of instruction, where some days meet more often than others due to holidays; or a calendar where each class meets 15 times, though not necessarily on the correct day of the week.
According to John Boot, a professor in the School of Management, the university must provide 15 days of instruction for each day of the week, even if it means having a Thursday class on a Tuesday. He said he was very concerned with having an accurate schedule.
"I think it's terribly important that we do (the schedule) right," he said.
A proposal from Boot would replace the missing Thursday class with a Tuesday time slot, and points to the Tuesday before the fall recess as the ideal date.
"To make a Tuesday a Thursday will not affect anything other than a (Thursday only) seminar," said Boot, noting that most Thursday classes also meet on Tuesdays.
Grant disagreed with Boot's suggestion. "I think it's essential that we stick to a calendar where the given day of instruction is the given day," he said.
Grant also said that the proposed calendar has been pre-approved by Albany.
Baumer said that many students have work schedules outside the university that could conflict if Boot's suggestion was put into effect. Professors should not have a problem with fewer class days, he said, if they plan accordingly.
