Withdrawals

It is our department policy that instructors do not withdraw students. Your syllabus should state this plainly. This does not mean that you cannot withdraw students; you are free to do so if you wish (so long as it is before the final withdrawal date). Rather, it is recommended that you do not and the policy is there to back you up. The department, however, does support the right of an instructor to drop students after a specified number of absences, so long as this is stated in the instructor’s syllabus.

Students may not be withdrawn after the last date of withdrawal listed in the ACC academic calendar. Our departmental policy and, moreover, that of the college, is that no letter grade may be changed to a “W” after that date. Exceptions are only allowed for extraordinarily exceptional circumstances that would have prevented the student from either completing the coursework or withdrawing from the class in a timely manner. Such an exception requires adequate documentation. While some students will undoubtedly express their dissatisfaction with this policy, it is the consensus of the department that sometimes failure can be an important part of the learning experience. It's just not the fun part.

Should such extraordinarily exceptional circumstances arise, the instructor will need to email Christy Berry in the Admissions office and explain and justify the situation. To put into perspective just how exceptional the circumstances should be to justify this, a recent example where this was done was in the case of an ”A” student whose mother was in a car wreck and was in a coma for several weeks. The student’s mother came out of the coma shortly before the deadline for withdrawal, so the student and instructor arranged for the student to make up the material that was missed. The deadline passed. The student’s best friend then committed suicide, and the student’s apartment burned down.

The principal exception to this departmental withdrawal policy is in regard to students who refuse to sign the safety contract for the course. Any student who refuses to sign the safety contract at the end of safety training must be withdrawn.