The UNC-system Board of Governors should vote against the proposal to require all campuses in the UNC system to end the course adjustment period 10 days into the semester.
The proposal would continue to allow students to drop a course after the 10-day period, but the drop would appear on the student’s transcript as a “withdrawal.”
The Board of Governors believes that the drop process for UNC schools should be standardized, but this proposal would have negative effects on UNC-CH. If standardization is the board’s ultimate goal, it should make sure any adjustment has a positive effect on all institutions.
By changing UNC-CH’s current system, students would be discouraged to try more challenging courses outside of their areas of study.
Adjusting the drop period is unnecessary. UNC-CH faculty and administrators have spoken out against the proposal, underlining its potential harm.
In 2004, UNC-CH lengthened its drop period from six to eight weeks in order to increase course retention rates. They increased by five percentage points from 2004-10.
If the period decreased to 10 days, retention rates would fall, leaving open seats in courses that could have been used by another student.
The idea behind a longer drop period is to encourage students to explore different fields and find topics they may be interested in. This new policy would prevent students from breaking out of their comfort zone, and it would discourage academic curiosity.
The Board of Governors should recognize that they do not need to fix something that is not broken.
