Current UNC-CH students will not be subject to the UNC-system shortened drop/add period, but future Tar Heels will be.
UNC’s Faculty Council approved a resolution Jan. 17 that will apply the new two-week drop period to the class of 2018 and subsequent classes, but current UNC students will continue to have eight weeks to drop a class each semester.
Student Body Vice President Jacob Morse said because the University and student government take directives from the UNC General Administration, they could not eliminate the policy entirely.
The UNC Board of Governors passed the two-week systemwide drop policy in April 2013, shortening UNC-CH’s drop period by six weeks.
“We got the word that no matter how many students spoke out against it or what the leaders of this campus say, the policy will not change,” he said.
In October, Morse and Student Body President Christy Lambden started a petition against the new drop period policy. Morse said by the end of the campaign, about 9,000 students, faculty and alumni signed the petition.
“The goal here is to allow students to have flexibility,” said Educational Policy Committee Chairwoman Theresa Raphael-Grimm in an email about the resolution.
Raphael-Grimm said the Faculty Council wants to ensure students are able to explore different areas of study and take demanding courses. Students can’t determine within two weeks whether taking challenging classes is the best academic decision, she said.
The resolution will allow future students to “withdraw by choice” from 16 credit hours after the second week and until the eighth week of classes.
