Life is hard, and sometimes the unexpected makes things that much harder. Such events cause students to rearrange their schedules and sometimes classes have to be dropped.
So why is it so hard for students to drop their classes?
Currently, students have to get a class’ instructor and the dean of the department for which the class is under in order to drop a class.
Considering we are talking about a university I think it is fair to say both students and instructors have a fairly busy schedule. With this in mind I believe the procedures for dropping a class should be changed to make the process easier.
I understand why the current status quo is in place. After all a good portion of the students on campus are young and therefore could drop classes for all the wrong reasons. However, college is supposed to be a time where students learn responsibility. If someone wants to drop, so they can stay out and party on Friday nights then so be it, but why do the rest of us have to be punished for this?
There is a simple solution, which will allow serious students to drop classes when needed and prevent the slackers from ducking an F when life gets “too hard.”
All students, regardless of age or time at the university, should be allowed to drop classes online without the consent of the teacher or dean once the student has completed 30 hours of course work.
No matter what the reason is for a student to drop a class, they are aware of how the college world works whether it is from spending time on campus or at another educational institution.
For those who have not completed 30 hours the current policy should not be changed. In fact I think it would be valuable to add a clause into the policy, which makes the student talk to an advisor about dropping a class before talking to a professor. This process would give beginning college students an idea of what was in store for them in terms of their whole college career. It would let them meet someone who is only interested in the student’s success, and therefore the student could get a completely objective opinion on whether or not dropping the class was a good idea.
The current policy is an injustice to students above the freshman level of college. It is admirable that the university wants to look after its students, but college is about growing up and accepting adulthood. The current drop policy hinders that transformation.