The College Voice

Issue date: 2/18/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Dmitry Gurvits Theresa Caruso, a Biology major, withdrew from a 15-week Ethics class a day and a half after the class's first meeting and received a full refund under Mercer's new policy.

Effective this spring, Mercer's new refund policy extends most of the deadlines by which students may withdraw from classes and still get a full refund.

Students taking 15-week classes now have 72 hours after the first class meeting to withdraw and have their full course fee refunded. Ten-week classes now have a 48 hour window, while seven- and five-week classes remain unchanged with just 24 hours to withdraw for a full refund. Under the old policy students had only 24 hours after the first class meeting to withdraw from any class, regardless of the length of the term, if they wanted a full refund.

The new policy comes after nearly a year of conversation by Mercer's executive team. "Everything we do is quite cyclical. So, at the beginning of the registration period [last spring] it would come up, and we finally decided to just make the change," said Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs Dr. Guy Generals.

"We felt it was a bit extreme. We wanted to do something more student-friendly," said Dr. Generals. Generals added, "even though students needed to know that the costs that they incurr includes the run up to the first day of class...And if they weren't going to stay in the class we had the possiblity of filling that seat with a student who wanted to stay. There needed to be some remuneration for them holding that seat and deciding not to come. We just felt that going from the one day to the three day was more student friendly and enabled students to make a clearer decision about what they wanted to do."

The decision was also influenced by concerns raised by students and their parents. Students with extenuating circumstances, illnesses or otherise compelling reasons, were consistantly having to contact Dr. Generals or the Executive Dean of Students, Dr. Diane Campbell, to obtain refunds after the 24 hour deadline.

"We're listening to students and parents all the time," says Dr. Campbell. "We have to begin to justify, well, why is that happening? If I hear a reason, that I believe is significant then on my side I'm going to try to get the support for students," she said. Dr. Campbell continued, "to that then [the other members of the Executive Cabinet] said, 'well maybe, you know, it is a little bit too rigid, let's think about how we can lengthen it a little bit' but that was the consensus of the executive team."

Continued...

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