Coming summer of 2012, students who have attempted a course more than three times will be prevented from taking the course in the future.
According to DVC’s Vice President of Instruction Susan Lamb, this means if you received a D or an F or withdrew from the class, you’ll only have two more chances to succeed here. After your third unsuccessful attempt, you’ll have to go to another community college district to try again.
“If students want to be successful, they’ve got to take that course in the spring,” said Lamb when explaining that next semester will be the last one where a student can complete a course they have repeated more than three times.
This is all the result of the state Legislature recently reducing the amount of times a student can repeat a course from seven attempts to only three in an on-going effort to cut the education budget.
According to Lamb, students who are at risk will be notified that spring semester is their last chance to succeed. In the future, students who fail or withdraw from a course twice will have an intervention by a DVC counselor.
According to DVC instruction office numbers, there are 390 students who have attempted English 122 more than three times while 420 students for Math 120, making them the classes most impacted by this policy.
“It’s not fair for the students,” said Jose Daza, who represents the Latino Student Alliance on the Inter-Club Council. “It doesn’t feel good being told you are a failure and that is what this policy does.”
Longtime DVC student William Medrano said that students face unforeseeable circumstances that can cause them to fail a course. “No matter how hard you try, life gets in the way,” Medrano said. “Who makes these decisions without my permission? This is not what I pay taxes for. I pay taxes to allow students to succeed.”
Communications major Claudia Aguas said, “Why eliminate advancement when someone is willing to take something more than three times?”
While students are mostly either against or aren’t yet aware of these changes, some faculty and administrators are looking forward to what they and students can do to get prepared.
“Maybe the good way to look at this is that it helps students be successful the first time,” said Lamb. “We need to make sure that they have the resources to be successful the first time whether through tutoring, study groups, cohorts and/or counseling.”
Math Department Chair Despina Prapavessi said, “We are trying to create alternatives for our students to be successful.” She said those alternatives include new courses like Math-110E Elementary Algebra in study skills and Accelerated Algebra for Statistics.
English Department Chair Judy Myers had advice for students who needed to take their impacted class next semester.
“During registration week, if you still can’t add your class, sign up for the waitlist the instructor passes out in class and don’t only depend on Webadvisor,” Myers said. “If you get into the class that you need to complete, be smart about how many units you are taking. Take a lighter load, go visit your teacher early and often.”
Lamb calls on students to be proactive. “Students are going to have to wake up and take the initiative, or else they will be left at the end of the road.”
