As the last day to drop or add a class without being penalized gets closer, the possibilities for students to drop a class after the fifth week are narrowed down to extreme circumstances such as medical reasons, military duty call, relocation out of the immediate area and sometimes stress.
Maureen Rubin, interim director of Undergraduate Studies, said that it is important for students to meet the deadline because after that the process gets more complex. Starting next week, students will need to fill out a form and pay attention to the list of reasons that would be acceptable, she added.
“If you come to class and stayed for four weeks and you don’t like it unfortunately we don’t have seats for all the students who want to take classes,” Rubin said. “If you wait until the end to drop a class, you are preventing a student to get in the class and that’s unfair.”
Rubin said the university gives all the students the opportunity to try classes for three weeks and drop them within the stipulated time so the students do not have to go though a long process.
The students who want to drop a class after this week will have to download a form from the CSUN Web site, followed by the recollection of signatures from the instructor of the class and the department chair of your major, and finally it has to be approved by the associate dean of the college, Rubin said.
Students will also have to present medical documentation, from the Addie Klotz Student Health Center, or documents showing an activation of military duty or relocation out of the immediate area, Rubin said. When the process is done and the students have this documentation completed, they must wait for the associate dean’s approval.
Last year these forms were handed to the Student Affairs office, but due to the high number of petitions, school officials had to readjust it to be handled by the dean of each major. This clarification has been made at the bottom of the form with a Web site (http://www.csun.edu/~assocdeans) where students can find out which dean they need to talk with.
According to Rubin, the reason why the university has few possible reasons to be considered is because the administrators need to find a way to be fair and balanced with all students.
“We give them three weeks to shop around and you can easily drop in SOLAR until Friday,” Rubin said. “We wish that everybody could get whatever they want, but when (students) take up a space (in) a class it’s a serious commitment.”
Rubin said, however, that other circumstances that are beyond the students control might be considered. In that situation, the students would need to present reasonable proof that they have a difficult situation, and they will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
“I can’t predict how any individual case would turn out to be,” Rubin said. “Every single student is listened to, their documentation is examined, and we do try to be as fair as possible.”
Rubi Uson, administrative support coordinator for Student Affairs, said that they do not have any jurisdiction regarding the approval to drop a class.
“If the petition (is) totally denied we can’t do anything about it,” Uson said. “That’s the university policy.”
Uson said that if the student wants to submit an appeal after their petition is denied by the associate dean, he or she has to do it through the office of undergraduate studies so the associate vice president can examine it.
Yolanda Canal, freshman health sciences major, said she was not aware of the procedure she has to follow if she wants to drop a class by next week.
“That’s a lot of work to do, it seems really complicated,” Canal said. “Especially for me that I’m new, I don’t even know who those people are.”
Canal said it is unfair to have to only pick handed reasons to gain approval to drop a class.
“I think they should add more reasons, so they can be fair with everybody,” Canal said. Instead of going through that difficult process the university “should allow us to do it online.”
Tennessee Rubio, freshman child development major, agreed with Canal and said that more options should be available to students.
“If you really hate your class you should be able to drop it,” Rubio said. “The process seems like (it) is too much to do.”
Rubin said, however, that students need to learn to be responsible and know the consequences of their decisions. She said that the information is available to them and they should be aware of processes like this one and deadlines.
“Usually students get a bad experience and next time they’ll read deadlines and do it on time,” Rubin said. “Sometimes they don’t understand that they need to follow rules.”
