Board Viewing Rule Changes

The Administrative Board is considering an extension of the period at the beginning of a semester during which a student may withdraw from courses. The present system allows students to drop courses only before the fourth Monday of the semester.

The change is designed to allow students with "legitimate reasons" to drop courses after the regular period. Charles P. Whitlock, acting dean of the College, said yesterday. The new system would allow a student with "good and sufficient reason to petition his senior tutor to drop a course" following the fourth Monday, he added.

Examples of "good and sufficient" reasons would be the desire of a student to change radically his concentration or to reduce a course load he found too demanding. Whitlock said.

The extension would be in the form of a special "grace period," during which students could petition to drop a course. The length of the period is still under discussion by the Administrative Board, Whitlock said. The change is expected to be implemented by registration day for the Spring term.

No Dropping New

Students who requested removal of course from their schedules after the fourth Monday of this semester were refused permission. "We held the line and didn't let anybody off the book." Whitlock said. "Some people have, in effect, dropped a course and will receive a grade of 'absent,'" he added.

Although an absent grade previously had been considered equivalent to failure, this semester senior tutors will be able to "consider it (an absent grade) in light of what he knows about the student and why he did it." Whitlock said.

The University originally imposed the limit on dropping courses following the Corporation's decision to allow a student to take an unlimited number of courses each term without an additional tuition charge. The more was designed to prevent "Wild-carding" of courses--taking additional units and then dropping those with the lowest grades to improve averages. Whitlock said