The Committee on Organization and Procedure recently approved a proposal that would allow students to drop courses up until the eighth week of a term without permission from the Registrar or their professor.
The proposal will go before the general faculty next term. If the faculty approves the plan, it could go into effect this fall, Committee on Instruction Chair Gary Johnson said.
"The proposal is not in limbo," Johnson said.
The COI approved the plan, which was proposed by Registrar Thomas Bickel, in the beginning of the term. Bickel previously said the proposal would ease the logistical burden on the Registrar's Office.
Students currently must petition the Registrar's Office to drop a course after the first 10 days of classes. According to a bulletin Bickel put on the Public File Server, 547 students filed petitions during the 1993-1994 academic year.
"For about two years I have been considering ways to change the present system to one which would be simpler, non-judgmental, and provide the students with basic control over their academic decisions, while still preserving the basic academic integrity and fairness to all students that is essential in our community," Bickel wrote.
If approved, the new policy would divide each term into three parts. In the first two weeks of the term, students would be allowed to drop courses with no transcript note.
From the second to the eighth week of the term, students could withdraw from a course by notifying their instructor and obtaining the instructor's signature on a card. Professors would not be allowed to stop students from dropping courses.
The dropped course would appear on the student's transcript as a "W" indicating "Withdrew."
According to Bickel's bulletin, "[During the] last two weeks of classes in the term and subsequently, students must petition to withdraw from a course."
"It will be expected, and all students will be notified that almost none of these petitions will be approved except in the most extreme medical or other circumstances," Bickel wrote.
Acting Dean of the Faculty Karen Wetterhahn told The Dartmouth in January that she thinks the proposal is a good idea. She said the faculty will likely approve the proposal.
