After making improvements to Boston University student life with Guest Policy changes for the spring 2003 semester, BU administrators took a step back late last week, planning the wrong approach to what may well be an overly-lenient part of the university’s academic standards. Without taking steps to improve BU’s academic advising system or making explicit loopholes for injury or sickness, administrators cut to eight weeks the amount of time within which students can drop classes without incurring a failing grade.
The changes, announced in a letter to BU faculty members, will take effect for the spring 2002 semester. Under current policy, students have until two weeks before the end of the semester to drop classes and receive a less damaging ‘W’ on their academic record. The shift was the most radical among several included in the letter.
Though the change sounds relatively fair, it was made too quickly and without substantive modifications to better prepare students for their classes. It was a simple alteration and did not require the needed, though more complicated, changes to the university’s academic system. Administrators said the changes are part of an effort to curb grade inflation, hampering some students’ efforts to drop classes late in semesters because of the prospect of failure. Though combating grade inflation is a worthy goal, administrators took an overly simplistic approach.
To help better prepare students for courses, administrators should focus on making the university’s academic advising system more effective. In most cases, BU’s academic advisors currently act as mere rubber stamps, signing off on students’ proposed schedules while offering little educated advice on students’ course selection. If administrators believe students should be allowed less time to drop classes, they have a responsibility to provide the infrastructure necessary to better inform students about course details.
Course descriptions and information should also be easier to access and more extensive. Administrators should require faculty members to provide course syllabi online when possible to help students get a feel for topics covered and reading load before registering. The university’s Source Guide should be made more inclusive than it currently is, allowing students access to other students’ comments about courses and their professors. Three sentences in the course catalogue are simply not enough.
Administrators should also ensure that there will be exceptions made to the new policy for extenuating circumstances, such as serious sickness, injury or family tragedy. Such events do not just happen in the first eight weeks of a semester and bad luck should not cost students on their academic record. The loopholes can be few in number, but must be included in any modified policy.
Changes to university class drop policy should not be limited to simply reducing time limits. The planned four-week reduction must be accompanied by sufficient changes to BU’s academic advising system and increases in widely available course information.