College Registrar Thomas Bickel said the new course dropping procedures instituted at the beginning of the term, which allow students to drop courses more easily, have so far been successful.
The procedures, approved almost unanimously by the faculty last spring, allow students to drop a course without consequence for the first two weeks of any term.
For the third week of the term until two weeks before the last class of the term, students are able to drop a class without their professor'spermission. The course remains on the student's transcript with the notation "W" for "withdrew."
Students may petition to withdraw from a course any time during the last two weeks of the term but must have a written response from the instructor in the course being dropped.
"We have not stopped to take stock" [of the new procedures], Bickel said.
But Bickel said more students have withdrawn from courses this term than petitioned to drop courses last summer.
"It certainly was less work" for the Registrar's Office, he said.
Bickel said the new procedures will be evaluated at the end of Spring term in 1996.
"So far so good," he said. "I'm comfortable with [the new procedures] because I think students have understood pretty well ... what the deadlines were and what they had to do and what freedom of choice they did have."
Bickel said he was unsure what professors thought of the new procedures.
Visiting Economics Instructor Lindsey Klecan, who is teaching Economics 21 this term, said she had about the same number of students drop her course as in previous terms.
"I think [the new procedures] make good sense because with the old system they ended up approving all the petitions anyway, and it was just a big administrative hassle," Klecan said.
"I think the students, in cooperation with the deans, are the best judges of what is right for them," she added.
Raul Avila '97 said he withdrew from Economics 21 midway through the term.
"I thought [the new procedures were] a lot easier," he said.
But Avila said he was concerned about the stigma attached to having a "W" on his transcript, even though he said administrators assured him it would not be frowned upon by graduate schools.
"Maybe I'm worrying about nothing," he said. "It just sounds bad to me."
Avila said he will take the course again in the fall.
