Delay the add date

The beginning of this spring semester was delayed one day as Marin Luther King Day is a national holiday. While this break is appreciated, the academic spring schedule needs to reflect this postponed start.

Classes that only meet once a week on Mondays are put at a disadvantage by this schedule because students will not attend the first day of class until the following week. Therefore, they only have two days to decide if they want to drop the class and replace it with another course to meet the “add” deadline.

Students do have a longer time to drop the course, until Feb. 3, but this might not be an option if they can’t add another course. Dropping a course is not an alternative for students when a lack of credits would affect scholarships and graduation time.

The administration should move back this add day by a week, allowing students in this situation experience a class twice. This would let them make an educated decision about their academic course load.

There are consequences with delaying the add date. If you move back the add date, the drop deadline needs to be pushed back an equal amount of time. Students that enter a new class still need to attend it before they can determine if they want to keep it on their schedule.

This change would affect scholarship money for some at the university. For example, the Bright Futures scholarship for Florida residents that go to an in-state school is now awarded on a per credit basis. The state will not give this money to students until after the add/drop dates have passed.

However, if a student’s only option is to drop a class and cannot add a new class because the deadline has passed, they will receive less money anyway. If a student stays in a class they do not want to take why should the state pay for it?

Editorials represent the majority view of The Miami Hurricane editorial staff.