Assembly Resolution

March 6, 2009

GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ORGANIZATION (GPSO)

RESOLUTION ON DROP/ADD LATE FEES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY-BLOOMINGTON -- REVISED

WHEREAS, Indiana University-Bloomington currently assesses a substantial financial penalty to students who do not pay a flat tuition fee for making a change to their course schedule after the first week of classes. For example, a nonresident graduate student enrolled in 12 credit hours will be charged $874 for switching from one 4-credit-hour course to another in the second week of classes, $1724 for waiting until week 3, $2574 in week 4, and $3425 in week 5 (this information taken from an e-mail announcement from the Graduate Office of the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall of 2008); and

WHEREAS, Indiana University-Bloomington already has a separate set of administrative fees, assessed on all students, to deter students from course-shopping; and

WHEREAS, this second penalty only applies to most Student Academic Appointees (SAAs) and graduate students, but does not apply to most undergraduate students, MBA students and law students; and

WHEREAS, this second penalty effectively penalizes a subset of the student population;

WHEREAS, such a substantial penalty, in effect, precludes any students subject to the penalty from making a course change after the first week of classes; and

WHEREAS, many graduate students may have justifiable academic, professional and personal reasons for making a course change after the first week of classes; and

WHEREAS, this body does recognize the need for some regulation, so as to ensure that graduate courses have sufficient enrollment numbers;

BE IT RESOLVED, that the GPSO Assembly recommends that the Indiana University-Bloomington administration modify this second financial penalty to be more lenient and/or flexible for the population of Indiana-University Bloomington students subject to the fee; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this body urges the Indiana University-Bloomington administration to either allow graduate students to make changes without penalty through the second week of classes and/or significantly reduce the penalty

PASSED AND ADOPTED by the GPSO Assembly this the 6th day of March 2006.

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GPSO President