The Faculty Council killed a student-backed proposal yesterday to extend the deadline for dropping courses, arguing that an extension would encourage students to abandon classes in which they fear they will do poorly.

The committee also gave a boost to professors and students pushing for greater recognition of ethnic studies and recommended tougher academic requirements for first-years. Both proposals will go before the full Faculty for approval at an unspecified later date.

The vote by the 19-member advisory committee is a dead end for plans to extend by two weeks the deadline which allows students to drop courses without a notation on their transcripts.

Alex B. Patterson ’02-’03 first introduced the proposal at a Jan. 29 Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) meeting. He and others argued that the extension of the deadline to the seventh week of the term would give students more freedom to take risks in choosing classes.

The prospect of a withdrawal notation on their transcript—visible to potential employers—can discourage students from taking challenging classes, he said.

The proposal was passed along to the Faculty Council for possible reworking and revision.

But yesterday, the council scrapped the plan altogether.

According to Baird Professor of Physics Gary J. Feldman, the majority of the council felt that the extra time would provide an easy way out for students overly concerned with grades.

“The arguments against tended to worry that students might drop courses because they felt they were going to get a bad grade which some people felt was not a good reason for dropping the course,” Feldman said.

Feldman added that because the “WD” withdrawal notation does not affect grade point average, it doesn’t have detrimental effects for the student unless it is one of many.

Students behind the proposal, including Undergraduate Council President Rohit Chopra ’04, blasted the committee’s decision.

Calling the current policy “draconian,” Chopra said that students should have the opportunity to drop classes in which they are not getting adequate support.

A Busy Meeting

While knocking down the drop deadline extension, the council passed along to the full Faculty the request of the Committee on Ethnic Studies (CES) to become a standing committee after nine years of “ad hoc” status.

The move buoyed the hopes of professors and students who have pushed for broader opportunities and offerings in the field.