University Senate of
Proposal 27-05
(Voting unit: ALL Senators)
Course Add and Drop Policies
Background
A series of Senate Proposals (30-94, 24-99, 11-00, 17-02, 27-04) have established the University’s late course add and drop policies. The current policy requires first-year students to see both their academic advisor and course instructor to add or drop a course. This policy was instituted to ensure that students were discussing their course and curricula choices with relevant faculty. However, students, faculty, and staff have found this policy to be cumbersome. In order to ensure that discussion is taking place, and to make the add/drop process easier, this policy needs simplification and updating.
Proposal: The University Senate recommends that the late course add and drop policies be changed to the following:
Adding Courses
Signature requirements for permission to add a course are:
First-year students:
Through the first five business days of the semester*, signature approval must be obtained from the student’s academic advisor.
After the fifth business day of the semester*, signature approval must be obtained from the student’s academic advisor and course instructor. Section changes for the same course do not require an academic advisor approval signature.
All other students:
Through the first five business days of the semester*, no signature approval is required. After the fifth business day of the semester*, students must obtain signature approval from the course instructor to add a course or change a section.
* Or the same percentage of the time if a course is offered in a time module other than a fourteen week semester.
The last day to officially add a full semester course is the Wednesday of second week.
Dropping Courses
During the first three weeks of the semester, courses dropped will not be recorded on the student’s permanent record. Beginning the fourth week through the end of the eighth week of the semester, courses dropped will be indicated by a grade of 'W' on the student's permanent record.
Signature requirements to drop a course are:
First-year students:
During the first three weeks of instruction*, signature approval must be obtained from the student’s academic advisor. Students must be made aware of how dropping a course affects their progress toward graduation. After the third week of instruction*, signature approval must be obtained from the student’s academic advisor and course instructor.
All other students:
During the first week through the end of the eighth week of instruction*, no signature approval is required to drop a course.
* Or the same percentage of the time if a course is offered in a time module other than a fourteen week semester.
After the eighth week, a student may request a late drop from Student Affairs, which will only consider those requests that clearly involve extenuating circumstances beyond a student’s control. Comments from the academic advisor and instructor will be requested prior to final approval. The registrar will show the course on the student’s permanent record with the grade of W.
Students that drop all of their courses will be withdrawn from school as of the date the last course was dropped.
13 April 2005: Adopted by the Senate
20 April 2005: Approved by President Mroz
Became Senate Policy 301.1