Seen as a problem resurfacing every year in front of the Student Government Association (SGA), the add/drop deadline for students to add or withdraw from courses at the beginning of the semester is set at five school days. After a Facebook survey hosted by SGA in February saw that 88.9% of the 90 surveyed students were in favor of extending the deadline, SGA drafted a resolution calling for the extension to 10 days, a five day increase from the current five days.
“It’s a problem that is brought up every year so it’s so far dated back we don’t even know the original source,” said newly-elected SGA Executive Senator for Committee Relations Kiersten Freedman.
The resolution states in part: "Longwood University Faculty Senate should pass the legislation to lengthen the add/drop period to fulfill its mission of fostering student learning and achievement."
Ultimately, if passed, the extension is at the discretion of the professor in terms of adding students during days six through 10 of the extension while the withdrawal period is at the discretion of the student. Newly-elected Student Body President Josh Darst said in some courses, missing the first two weeks of a course can put a student significantly behind which does not promote student success.
After SGA Business and Economics Representative Emmy Gable drafted the resolution, both Freedman and Darst sought support from the Financial Aid and Registrar offices. According to Freedman, both the Financial Aid office and Registrar offices are in favor of the resolution. Darst said Susan Hines, registrar, was “really a catalyst” with progressing the resolution.
“The administration and the faculty are not opposed to talking about the add/drop deadline, but the timing of the resolution coming in April, that’s not the time to initiate the conversation at the end of the school year,” said Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Larissa Smith Fergeson.
According to Fergeson, in order to change the add/drop deadline, the legislation has to be approved by the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) then passed by Faculty Senate.
On April 5, Faculty Senate passed an extension of the withdraw date from day 35 to day 50 of regularly scheduled classes after it was approved by the EPC.
“That may address some of these issues as well,” said Fergeson.
She also stated she would be willing to readdress the deadline in Fall 2018, but the implementation, if approved by the EPC and Faculty Senate, would “depend on how the conversation goes.”
According to Fergeson, she has met with Darst and Freedman on the resolution and asked them to do some research about other school’s and their add/drop deadlines. James Madison University (JMU) has a retention rate of 92 percent and University of Mary Washington (UMW) has a 82 percent freshmen retention rate while Longwood has a 80 percent retention rate. Both JMU and UMW have a 10 day add/drop period, according to Freedman.
“I don’t have any evidence that it does (influence the retention rate for freshmen students) I think that we can take a look at it,” said Fergeson.
“Realistically we passed this resolution, but it’s nothing more than a recommendation to the administration and faculty of Longwood so all we can ask from a realistic standpoint is a conversation is had,” said Darst. Both Freedman and Darst said they want to see the extension implemented Spring 2019 but see it happening more for Fall 2019.
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In a survey conducted by SGA, 11.1 percent of respondents expressed concerns with how Financial Aid would be influenced by the resolution.
According to Freedman, SGA has received support from the Registrar's office.
