New Withdrawal Policy

Effective 9/10/13, students may no longer withdraw from all courses through WebAdvisor. While students may still withdraw from some individual courses online, they will be prevented from withdrawing from the semester completely until they have talked with their instructor(s), an advisor, and Financial Aid (if applicable) and submitted a Withdrawal From All Courses form.

Why is this changing?

This policy change comes from several Strategic Enrollment Management workgroups that are looking at ways to realign our policies and programs to be more supportive of retention. Many students withdraw without talking with their instructor, an advisor, or Financial Aid. This leads to a variety of issues that can negatively affect retention, including (but certainly not limited to)

• Students may withdraw from courses that they could have ultimately completed successfully with extra support or encouragement from faculty or staff.
• Students may regret their decision to withdraw once they later realize financial implications.
• Students struggling in several classes may choose to keep a course that could have been taken in another semester and instead withdraw from a class that has a stronger correlation to their ability to graduate within their expected timeframe.

In addition, we don’t always know why students choose to withdraw and it’s important that we know this so we may begin developing more effective retention programs and outreach. This new policy will help students make more informed decisions about withdrawing and help us understand their motives and needs so we can better support students in the future.

FAQs about withdrawing and this new policy are available at http://www.racc.edu/Academics/Advising/default.aspx.

 

We will likely have students coming to us to discuss their withdrawal options. It is our responsibility to take the information they have gotten from their instructor(s) and help them synthesize that information with any potential academic or financial aid implications. It is NOT our role to tell a student that they can’t withdraw (we are not granting “permission”), but it IS our responsibility to make sure they are making on informed decision.

  The new Withdrawal From All Courses form includes a box that says “RACC influence” at the bottom. You should check this box only when you feel the withdrawal is something RACC could have prevented in some meaningful, realistic way.