Incoming students will have to hit the ground running this fall,
as the recently implemented minimum progress requirement will
mandate students to take a full load of courses every quarter.
The regulation ““ which requires students to take a minimum
of 13 units each quarter and 27 every two quarters ““ was
intended to decrease the amount of time students spend in college
in the face of enrollment boosts. It was approved by the Academic
Senate in 2001.
But some students and many student leaders believe the
requirement puts an unfair burden on students and are calling for
its suspension until further research of its effects can be
completed.
Since its implementation on first-year students in the fall of
2001, the regulation changed how counselors monitored
students’ progress. The requirement will also be implemented
for incoming transfer students for the first time, starting this
fall. Prior to 2001, students were required to take a minimum of 36
units every year.
Though the regulation mandates 13 units per quarter, counselors
only take action every two quarters, said Margaret Tchakerian,
assistant director of College of Letters & Science
Counseling.
If students have not completed the required units, counselors
alert students and recommend the students come in for a
consultation. Each subsequent quarter that the student fails to get
back on track, the student faces a series of penalties.
Despite the seemingly punitive quality for violators of the
regulation, Tchakerian said the counselors are there to support
students.
Students can take some five-unit courses or a few one or
two-unit seminars to be able to manage the requirement, Tchakerian
said. She added that students also can take courses during the
summer or at community colleges to add to their unit count.
Despite the opportunities available to complete the required
units, some students still found it difficult to stay on
target.
Third-year anthropology student Stephen Park was placed on
Expected Cumulative Progress probation following the 2003 spring
quarter because he was short one unit. ECP refers to the total
units students must take throughout their stay on campus.
With an internship at the UCLA athletics marketing department
and working as a programming assistant in the dorms, Park said it
was difficult for him to manage the workload.
To compensate, Park plans on completing 15 units during the
summer, though he said he does not want to.
“I wanted to travel and have a chance to relax “¦ but
I have to spend all my time in summer school and that kind of
sucks,” Park said.
Though counseling records showed that close to 600 students had
been placed on ECP probation after winter 2002, the records also
showed that 97 percent of students were able to manage.
“We were initially concerned about students being able to
handle ECP, but most students are able to make it … it was a real
pleasant surprise,” Tchakerian said.
In fact, some students went beyond the required 13 units.
Second-year biology student Paul Oh said he was able to handle a
20-unit quarter by staying focused on his academics. Still, he
believed the unit allocation system was unfair, since he will
have to take many four-unit science courses for his major.
From his experience, Oh said some four-unit courses had
been harder than his five-unit courses.
Tchakerian said a reevaluation of the unit system, which is
determined by the course’s work load, is still in
progress.
In the administrators’ effort to “crank”
students through the system, they established a hasty regulation
without adequately assessing its effect on students, said Sophia
Kozak, the Academics Affairs commissioner of the Undergraduate
Students Association Council.
Kozak said her commission, along with the Campus Retention
Committee, a student-run program focusing on outreach and
retention, will lobby for a moratorium of the requirement next
year.
Misai Minters, the director of counselors for the Academic
Advancement Program, agreed that putting new pressures on students
may not be a good thing. AAP tutoring services have traditionally
been used by minority students.
Last year, USAC also passed a resolution calling for a
moratorium, stating that the changes negatively impact financial
aid students and students with jobs or extracurricular
activities.
However, the College of Letters & Science does offer a fee
reduction program exempting students with extenuating circumstances
from the regulation.
Though a moratorium may not be achieved, Tchakerian said
students can plan ahead to avoid getting off track of the
requirement.
“It is a good idea for any student to have a general idea
of what to take each quarter and when they will graduate,”
she said.