The drop deadline for classes has officially been extended in response to a resolution presented last semester by the Undergraduate Student Government. Beginning next fall, the drop deadline will occur during the seventh week of school, instead of during the third week.

The new resolution was approved and presented to the Committee of Academic Policies and Procedures in December 2014, which then passed the resolution that same day. The new deadlines have been officially posted on the university calendar and the Registrar’s website.

Nicole Schrad, USG’s director of academic affairs, initiated the idea when she noticed that students had to decide to drop a class before they had any important tests or projects. Thus, students had no measure of how well they could do in their classes.

Chief of Staff Hassan Ebrahim noticed that other institutions had their drop deadlines well into the semester, giving their students a greater advantage by allowing them to drop classes at later dates.

“This is something we felt would facilitate a more academically sound environment and encourage students to pursue more challenging classes … and the administration definitely agreed,” Ebrahim said.

Schrad, along with Greek Senator Providence Illisevich and Assistant Director of Academic Affairs Maariyah Patel, wrote and presented the first resolution to the Registrar last September. The resolution proposed to extend the add/drop and pass/no pass letter grade deadlines to the seventh week of the semester, on the grounds that it would encourage students to try out new classes and be able to drop them without consequences if they were not good fits.

“Students need to feel that they can earn a transcript that not necessarily makes it easier for them, but that reflects what they are capable of at the same level than all the other students at top private universities,” Illisevich said.

Schrad explained that the Registrar’s main concern with the first resolution was that they did not want students changing their classes from a letter grade to pass/no pass after the third week of school.

“The Registrar thought that’d be better because a lot of classes work in groups, and they didn’t want groups to be hindered by people changing to pass/no pass and then slacking off,” Schrad said.

Additionally, the financial aid office feared that changing the deadline would affect tuition and the payment process.

“They were concerned that there’s a lot of different laws involved with financial aid, and so they wanted to make sure that students were flagged if they were dropping too many courses,” Schrad said.

USG amended the resolution and presented a new one this semester, which included the stipulation that classes could only be changed from pass/no pass to letter grades after week three, and not vice versa.

This new resolution also stated that courses could not be added after the third week of classes, and that any classes dropped after this deadline still had to be paid for.

“We actively answered to [the administration’s] requests because their support was huge in the long run,” Schrad said.

Douglas Shook, dean of academic records and registrar, explained that the amendment would not disrupt the way in which the university operates.

“If you withdraw from a class after week three, it’s still going to be part of our internal and financial records,” Shook said. “It’s just that we won’t show a ‘W’ on your transcripts, and that made it easier for us to accommodate [USG’s] request because we weren’t changing how the university records enrollments or registrations, and it doesn’t have implications for financial aid.”

Many students explained that they were in favor of the amended resolution for a new add/drop deadline.

“If you fail the first midterm, then you can drop the class without being penalized. I’m not advocating anyone failing, but this is a safety net for people that are going to grad school,” said Jad Elgaali, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience.