Late enrollment policy inconvenient for some but important to student success

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By Julius Williams

The last day a student can add a course is the day before the class meets for the first time, according to the college’s late enrollment policy. That policy, instituted by the college three years ago, may have some students feeling frustrated.

Amy Coons, a pre-nursing student at the college, said she doesn’t like the policy. Last semester, as part of her course load, Coons enrolled in two classes, one of which was a prerequisite for the other. After the semester started, Coons dropped the prerequisite and was automatically dropped from the second course. By the time Coons realized her mistake, it was too late.

Coons tried to reenroll in the same classes but couldn‘t.

“I had to wait until the summer to take the prerequisites I needed for the nursing program. It was a mess,” she said.

Other students have mixed feelings about the policy.

“It complicates things,” said elementary education major Kristen McAfee. “It’s hard for students especially if they need to maintain credit hours for scholarships… But at the same time, it might not be good to change [the policy], it would create complications for students.”

Reducing complications and keeping students successful is exactly why the policy was put in place maintains Dennis Day, vice president of Student Success and Engagement. The college conducted studies to find out how well people performed when they enrolled after classes started.

“We found that out of all the students who enrolled after classes started…40 percent dropped out, [out of the remaining late enrollees] 60 percent didn’t pass the class, and 80 percent that finished the course had one [letter] grade less than normal,” said Day. “The data is hard to ignore.”

Libby Corriston, director of the Math Resource Center, echoed that sentiment.

“We want students to be successful,” Corriston said. “It’s not a punitive thing even though it may feel that way for some students. A few people would be successful who enrolled late, but on the whole it wasn’t true. Students dropped or quit coming or ended up with a low grade that kept them from moving on to the next class.”

There are no plans to change the college’s policy, but for students who find themselves in awkward situations like Amy Coons did, there is some relief.

“Academic departments have the ability to help a student out in special situations,” Day said. “But the student has to talk to that department.”

“It truly is about trying to enhance student success,” Day said.

Contact Julius Williams, special to the Ledger, at jwilli78@stumail.jccc.edu.

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1 COMMENT

  1. At what point did The Ledger become a mouthpiece for the Administration?

    No late enrollment was originally promoted by Dennis Day based upon a study the administration commissioned that is statistically flawed and proves nothing. Dr. Day admitted as much to me after he spun the new policy at a meeting of the Student Senate – senators who, I should add, showed little interest in protecting fellow or future students.

    Now he has dredged up new data that seems nearly as worthless. There are many reasons that not being allowed to change or add courses after an arbitrary date will inconvenience one or many students. It is a dumb policy.

    The real reason it was installed is there is an influential faculty group somewhere on campus that was “tired of spending time to catch-up late enrollers.”

    I see by the editor’s comments in this same issue that The Ledger no longer has much interest in investigative journalism. You just want to “get along.”

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