Students who decide not to attend a course without dropping have a little more room to breathe thanks to a new policy implemented by Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez on June 4.

If a student decides to withdraw from a class without officially dropping, prior policy allowed them a six-month time period to petition for a drop and not receive a “WU” on their transcript. The new policy allows students to petition all “WU” grades to be dropped from their GPA for the first semester in which they received this mark up until graduation.

“Many faculty members felt that a six-month time period was arbitrary, and that students shouldn’t be penalized in such a manner,” registrar Anita Hall said. A “WU” grade is calculated as an “F” in the student’s GPA.

In a faculty executive committee meeting on March 9, the subject was discussed extensively. During the meeting, an argument in favor of the new policy was supported by the fact that students no longer receive notification in the mail of any “WU” grades they got in their first semester. This made it difficult for counselors to justify the six-month deadline period to students.

“Students should dig a little to figure out what is going on with their transcripts; it is part of their duty,” Hall said.

The policy applies to the first semester in which a student receives one or more “WU” grades. Any received after that semester will be not be able to be dropped.

Since the policy was changed after the 2004-06 catalog was released, the new policy is not present in the new catalog. However, students who weren’t able to petition to drop a “WU” in the fall of 2003 or earlier may now do so no matter when the mark was received.

“A lot of students are really excited now that they can drop these ‘WU’ marks that mess up their GPAs,” said Debbie Gutierrez, the academic advising intern. “I think it is a great opportunity for those who had missed the deadline in the past.”

If a student does receive a “WU,” it is required for them to fill out a petition to drop form and sign it. The student must then submit the form to a Sac State academic adviser familiar with the process.

The petition is available online http://www.webapps1.csus.edu/admr/content/form/ wu_grade.pdf.