Effective summer 2012, Santa Rosa Junior College will implement new limitations regarding course repetition and withdrawal. For many students this means they may have to seek alternative options if they plan to repeat or withdraw from a course.
Under the new regulation, Course Repetition and Withdrawal Policy 8.1.16 and Procedures 8.1.16P, students repeating a course in which they previously received a grade of D, F, NC, NP and/or a W symbol will now only be allowed a total of three enrollments. Students may petition to repeat or enroll in the course for a fourth time, but they will only get approval if specific criteria are met.
The limitations are mandated by newly adopted Board of Governors’ Title 5 regulations. “These new regulations are retroactive, which for SRJC means the fall 1981 semester when our student records went online,” said Freyja Pereira, director of Academic Records and International Admissions at SRJC.
All California Community Colleges will be required to adhere to the new regulations by this summer.
According to Mary Kay Rudolph, vice-president of Academic Affairs at SRJC, “It was not our decision. It was the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The state realized that for people, life intervenes.”
Rudolph explained that many students may have signed-up for classes right after high school and then dropped them because they were sick, they had a sick child or they lost their job. “Now they’re coming back, re-careering and they never did bother to finish English 1A or Math 155 and now they have to take it to go on to the nursing program, and now all of a sudden they’ll be blocked. Life intervenes, but how many times do you get a shot with the taxpayer paying for it? That’s the difference,” Rudolph said.
Rudolph said that as soon as the new policy and procedures were being considered for review, notification was sent out—via email by Diane Traversi, director of Admissions and Records at SRJC—to all students affected by these changes.
The policy change will affect only a small number of students. “The changes will affect all students who need to repeat or enroll in the same course beyond three times. However, in January, I ran a report on all spring 2012 students, and it identified 203 students who had either met or exceeded the three enrollment limit in a single course,” Pereira said.
Rudolph admitted that the new course repetition and withdrawal changes are “part of the bigger picture” the state of California is coming down on community colleges. It all comes down to accountability. “We want students to have access, but we want them to progress,” Rudolph said. “We want them to not just come back and forth. We want them to constantly be held accountable for their studies and we need to guide them, and assist them into making it through the system in the most expeditious way possible.”
The policies and procedures related to the course repetition and withdrawal changes have gone to the Board of Trustees and have had a full constituent review this past year. “When I say ‘full constituent review,’ it starts at EPCC (Educational Planning and Coordinating Council) and that’s where Academic Senate, Academic Affairs, Student Services and department chairs take a look at it. We’ve taken it to the Student Senate, the Academic Affairs Council, the department chairs council, the Student Services Council, the Union and then to the College Council,” Rudolph said. “So it’s really had a full review.”
Rudolph said she has encouraged deans and faculty to announce the upcoming course repetition and withdrawal changes in class so students are made aware. If students have questions, they should contact their department chair or Admissions and Records, which will review their records, and look for any potential problems.
“They should go ahead and make contact now. We will work with them, so they need not to wait until the last minute,” Rudolph said.
According to Pereira, the new policy and procedures have been revised and was on the May 8 Board of Trustees agenda for final approval.
