2008 Woodie Awards
Withdrawal Fail Policy addresses pros, cons
Bailey Douglass
Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: News
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The fall semester was the first semester for which the new Withdrawal Fail Policy applied, and it succeeded in shrinking the number of students who withdrew from classes.
"Our policy prior to the fall of 2006 was that a student could withdraw in the first two weeks without a record - that means nothing on the transcript about the withdraw," said Jack Roundy, head of Academic Advising and a member of the Academic Standards Committee. "In the following two weeks, if a student withdrew from the class they got an automatic W on the transcript. After the fourth week of classes until the last day of classes the student could withdraw and the faculty member would make a determination of whether to award a grade of W or WF, W being not calculated into the grade point average."
A Faculty Senate decision changed the policy for last semester, extending the Automatic W period to a sixth week.
"The Faculty Senate was concerned that there was a great deal of inconsistency in the awarding of W and WF grades after the fourth week," Roundy said.
"When a student withdrew after the fourth week on the old system, the registrar recorded a placeholder grade of X," said Brad Tomhave, registrar and a member of the Academic Standards Committee. "This prompted the faculty member to choose a grade of W or WF to award the student, with the W leading that choice. That had the effect of telling faculty members 'W is the default grade, just choose that one, you have to go one more to choose WF.' The new policy set aside that practice for a process that gave faculty specific instructions about how the WF was to be awarded verses the W grade."
Tomhave said the six week cutoff point gives faculty more graded exercises on which to base their decisions. There is no requirement that faculty members administer a graded exercise by the sixth week, but the Academic Standards committee members determined that this was generally the case.
The new policy also changes the procedure for dropping a course near the end of the semester.
"Our policy prior to the fall of 2006 was that a student could withdraw in the first two weeks without a record - that means nothing on the transcript about the withdraw," said Jack Roundy, head of Academic Advising and a member of the Academic Standards Committee. "In the following two weeks, if a student withdrew from the class they got an automatic W on the transcript. After the fourth week of classes until the last day of classes the student could withdraw and the faculty member would make a determination of whether to award a grade of W or WF, W being not calculated into the grade point average."
A Faculty Senate decision changed the policy for last semester, extending the Automatic W period to a sixth week.
"The Faculty Senate was concerned that there was a great deal of inconsistency in the awarding of W and WF grades after the fourth week," Roundy said.
"When a student withdrew after the fourth week on the old system, the registrar recorded a placeholder grade of X," said Brad Tomhave, registrar and a member of the Academic Standards Committee. "This prompted the faculty member to choose a grade of W or WF to award the student, with the W leading that choice. That had the effect of telling faculty members 'W is the default grade, just choose that one, you have to go one more to choose WF.' The new policy set aside that practice for a process that gave faculty specific instructions about how the WF was to be awarded verses the W grade."
Tomhave said the six week cutoff point gives faculty more graded exercises on which to base their decisions. There is no requirement that faculty members administer a graded exercise by the sixth week, but the Academic Standards committee members determined that this was generally the case.
The new policy also changes the procedure for dropping a course near the end of the semester.
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