Drop-Add ends almost as soon as it begins

Photo courtesy georgemason.edu

School has started, students and professors are back in the swing of things. Classes started last Wednesday — an irregular day of the week for returning students — and now the drop/add period is already here.

According to FAMU’s official university academic calendar for spring 2021, on Jan. 12, add/drop ends for courses. The Registers Office confirmed when called that as of now the add/drop period would not be extended. Many students have mixed emotions about this deadline arriving so quickly.

The class I needed to add was not a part of my requirements so having such a short time to reach my adviser was very stressful because she had to manually input the course in,” said Shantell Mullings.

Mullings is a junior biology pre-medicine student and she said she just needed an extra class to maintain her status as a full-time student. She said having a short add/drop period was stressful because she had been trying to get in contact with my adviser over the break, but due to COVID this was a little harder.

When its time to register for classes students typically have two big issues. The first being that they need a permission code from their adviser to get into a course. The second being that students need a class that isn’t full. With virtual learning new problems arise in the process.

Sophomore architecture major Kyla Maynard shared her new found obstacles will adding and dropping a course.

There wasnt enough space in the classroom since there was a limited number of seats due to COVID,” Maynard said.

Maynard said that she and many others had to drop the course and add on the remote learning version of the course. She said this wasnt a hard thing to do but that it was a new curveball to overcome.

Although some students had issues with classes starting in the middle of the week and  that the add/drop period is over less than week later is not the first rodeo for every professor.

Janelle Robinson, an associate professor of nutrition, has been teaching for eight years and this is not the first time she started a semester in the middle of the week. Since she has experienced this already she doesnt think starting at a different time creates a different dynamic.

There were no issues for me, but it might have been out of the norm for students as online participation in my classes was lower than expected,” Robinson said.

Now that its official and classes are set in stone you only have a few more hours to finish drop any courses that are working for you. Speak now or you will be waiting until March 19 for your opportunity to withdraw.