 "Photo: Alfredo Linares")
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ffective in January 2007, the Texas Legislature passed a law that restricts the number of times an undergraduate student can drop a class. Six is the magic number.
With the six-drop limit in place in all public universities and colleges in Texas, students have to consider closely the classes they are taking and whether they will be able to drop a class that is too difficult or if they are going to have to take the hit in their GPA.
Essentially, the six-drop rule is this: Every student gets six drops in their undergraduate career. Once those six drops are used up, then a student must complete all classes he or she is enrolled in regardless of academic performance. The state does allow for extenuating circumstances such as a student suffering severe illness or an accident, death of a close family member or friend or if the student can show a legitimate cause for the drop.
The state of Texas has to give funding to all public universities and colleges for the number of registered hours that are being taken at a particular institution. The state realized, however, that it had to give funding for hours that were being dropped and that were in fact not being taken. So in an effort to save money, the state passed the six-drop rule, which allows schools to receive funding only for classes that are not dropped.
Now all of us have to be more careful about the classes we take.
If you dropped a class because the grade you had was going to wreck your GPA or because you just couldn't get along with your teacher, it could cause you to make a tough decision. Stay in a class that is too hard where you know you are going to fail, or drop the class.
Why should we have to suffer that kind of stress when we already sacrifice so much for school? We pay an arm and a leg to go to college. Many of us work at least one job - many of us two or even three jobs - to be able to afford tuition, books and all the random costs associated with higher education.
Just to have some senators who already have college educations and want to save a little money restrict the number of classes that we can try is not fair. It keeps us from trying something new and different and forces us to do everything the exact same way it always has been done.
College is supposed to be about new experiences. It's about allowing new and creative ideas to abound. Instead the six-drop limit is designed to keep us all in the same rut.
Instead of an education major being able to test other classes in other majors just to see if they like that better, the student has to worry that if he or she does take another class and has to drop it because of work or not liking the class, the student won't have the opportunity to retake a class at another time when it is more convenient. The student can't even think about going outside the original career plan but instead has to save the six drops 'just in case."
Keep the six drops in mind when you are registering for classes next semester. The Texas Legislature's plan to save money for more fences, more guns and more control has forced us to choose between trying new things and getting college done in the shortest amount of time and the least amount of government money.
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