Withdrawing from courses could become less confusing and bureaucratic for students through a proposal that combines the two withdrawal periods into one.
Legislation supporting the combination of withdrawal periods passed unanimously through University's Senate's Academics and Credits Committee on Tuesday, chairman Martin Bennett said.
"It's an archaic policy," he said. "We are hoping will come into the 21st century here."
Ball State University's current policy is stricter than most schools in the MAC conference and in Indiana, said Cindy Marini, assistant advisor of Academic Advising. In preparation for the legislation, she compared policies at 14 institutions and surveyed 39 of the 44 departments across campus.
Current policy says the first withdrawal period runs from the sixth day after classes begin to the 23rd day after classes begin. The second period is from the 24th day to the 45th day, and instructor permission is required to withdraw.
Under the proposal, one withdrawal period would run from the sixth day to the 45th day, and students would need instructor approval, Bennett said.
While there is a university policy, Marini found through the surveys that withdrawals are often not handled the same way.
"It wasn't consistently applied across departments," Marini said. "It wasn't even consistently applied from one professor to another across departments."
Part of the issue is a discrepancy in policy wording. According to the Ball State catalog,
students must have a passing grade to withdraw, but the faculty handbook states the student must have an A, B or C grade. In some courses, a D could be passing, and Marini said that could be a point of contention.
By the time students realize they are in trouble academically, the first withdrawal period has passed.
"Most instructors don't have substantial graded material so students don't know if they are going to be in trouble in that first withdrawal period," Bennett said.
Marini said she brought the proposal to Admissions and Credits Committee on March 11, and it was now scheduled to go to Faculty Council on Thursday. Bennett said he was pleased and surprised it was happening so quickly. However, University Senate undersecretary Melanie Turner said the quick turnaround was not unusual.
"We don't like stuff hanging around if we can help it," she said.
Depending on the amount of discussion about the proposal, it could go before University Senate at the last meeting of the semester on April 26. If passed, it is not known when the proposal would go into effect.
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