This week not only marks the beginning of the spring semester for Kent State students, but also the adjustment of university policy in regarding late registration for classes.

Kent State’s new late-add policy forbids students from self-adding new courses to their schedules one week after the official start of classes. Starting this semester, the latest time for students to register online is Sunday, Jan. 24 at 11:59 p.m. After the deadline, all courses added by students must be approved by requesting permission from the instructor before officially being enrolled in the class.

Once a student has requested to be enrolled in a course via FlashLine, an email will be sent letting the professor know there is a student who is interested in enrolling in their class. It is then up to the professor to determine whether or not they will be permitted to enter the class. This is primarily based on if they feel the student can still succeed after missing the first week of class.

Eboni Pringle, dean of the University College at Kent State, said the rationale behind this new policy was to increase the likelihood of students succeeding and progressing toward graduation. It was developed after a committee of faculty and administrators at Kent State looked at several university policies to determine which ones were helping students succeed or hindering them from progressing. During this review, the committee noticed some issues with the former course-add policy.

“What we found in particular about that policy is that students who were adding classes that second week contained a higher proportion of students either withdrawing from the class or earning Ds or Fs, than those students who had added in the first week,” Pringle said.

Pringle said there have been no complaints from professors about the new policy, but rather an applause.

“Members of the Faculty Senate were experiencing it first hand,” Pringle said. “They were seeing students who had added their class late struggling and were experiencing difficulty trying to get that student caught up.”

Sharon Sciartelli, an associate professor in the psychology department, said that although students may be at a higher risk of not succeeding in the class they start late, it is the student’s responsibility to put in the work to catch up in the course once they have committed to it.

“I like the policy in a sense that it’s a service to point out to students the extra work that will be needed if they decide to register late,” Sciartelli said. “I will also, however, most likely be accepting all requests I receive if I believe they are willing to do the work.”

However, A.J. Milano, a senior communication studies major, said he finds the new policy to be more harmful than helpful to students.

“It’s pretty awful because it really takes a lot of control away from the student,” Milano said. “In the past, I’ve added and dropped classes based on if I didn’t like the class or if the class didn’t fit me, and it would be a real big hassle to have to get permission from someone.”

Because the policy is still very new, Pringle said that adjustments will be made if needed. After some time passes,  the faculty will be able to determine how effective the policy is at helping students.

“While the new policy doesn’t open the door wide to all students, I think it opens the door at the appropriate time for students so that they can be successful,” Pringle said.

Students can access the Late Registration Request page on kent.edu by logging in to their FlashLine account, going to the Student Tools & Courses tab, clicking “Additional Tools: FlashFast,” then “Registration.”

For more information contact Jenna Kuczkowski at [email protected] or Caroline Licata at [email protected].