Until this semester, there was no limit on how many times you could re-take a class. Now students can only do so twice.
The policy emerged to counter what many thought was an insufficient roadblock the State Board of Regents implemented 15 years ago where students were charged $100 per credit every time they took a class more than three times. During Fall Semester 2014, 517 students repeated a course for a third time — a big increase from Spring Semester 2005, when the payment policy began and 182 students repeated, said Ed Barbanell, associate dean of undergraduate studies. That fee is no longer charged to students, and the new policy will begin in the coming fall.
The top five courses students re-take are: Math 1010, 1050 and 1210, followed by Writing 2010 and Chemistry 2310. Most of these are courses that non-majors take in order to get into more rigorous programs, Barbanell said. Many departments place limits for declared students to repeat classes, but with these non-major pre-requisite courses, there was no way for the university to deter students.
“It’s a relatively small percentage of our students, but these are the ones we need to get to early and re-direct,” he said.
Barbanell believes by finding and targeting these students, academic advisors can help them take other classes to prepare them so they do not waste their time and money. A broad base of students are required to take certain classes, such as human anatomy, including all pre-med, pre-dental, pre-nursing, pre-PPT, pre-occupational therapy, pre-pharmacy and exercise and sports science majors.
Most of the time students repeat the class to get a better grade.
“There are a lot of pre-nursing students that got a C and realize to get into nursing school they need a B or an A,” said Mark Nielsen, a professor of biology. “It’s not like they failed the class — it’s just they realize, ‘Whoa, I’m in a competitive thing, and to be in that competitive thing I need to perform better.’”
That is why Lesley Wilson, a pre-nursing sophomore, is re-taking human anatomy this semester.
“I didn’t put enough effort into it,” she said.
Wilson is also retaking Math 1070 and History of Rock and Roll. She recognized that a lot of the fault fell on her, but with so many people re-taking math classes, she thinks there might be a correlation.
“In the math department, there is a struggle because they have graduate students as professors,” she said.
Wilson does not see why they have a policy to deter students because she thinks every student should be able to re-take a class if they are willing to pay the fees. The new grade replaces the old one, so there is not much to lose.
@carolyn_webber