We're getting closer to November, so that means it's time for Spring Registration. For most students, it's a stressful time, but I like to think of it as full of promise. It's that time of satisfyingly checking off requirements, preparing for a new semester to learn new things, and see what kind of liberal arts concoction can be made. It's a time of thinking, what days will I be able to eat lunch? When will I have to wake up on Friday mornings?
I think my last semester at Westminster was the most starkly "liberal arts" semester I've had so far: I took Spanish, Forensic Science, Chorus, Math, and Sociology of Deviance. My classes were all over the board. I'm excited to start my next semester, too. I've got it all mapped out, and every single class sounds like it's right up my alley: Spanish Capstone, Latin American History to 1825, Cultural Anthropology, New Testament, Spanish 411, Special Education Field Experience, and Scuba. (Okay, maybe Scuba isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I'm excited to breath under water, plus it'll be the only class I'll ever be able to take with Tony.) This coming semester shows my combination of interests: Spanish, culture, education. It shows the promise of me adding a second major (Intercultural Studies - how cool!!! But it's not official yet). It shows so much potential....
But there's one itty bitty problem. The credit total is 23. Westminster College charges an overload fee for any number of credits over 19. That's right, I want to take four extra credits. So I thought, hey, maybe I could spare a few bucks for the perfect semester - I couldn't imagine dropping any of those classes off my registration! So I shot an email to the Registar's office asking how much the overload fee was, exactly. This was the response:
Meghan,Anything over 19 semester hours costs $970 per semester hour. Courses that are exempt from the overload policy include Physical Education, Music lessons and ensembles. I can be more specific if you list the courses you plan to take.
Am I reading this correctly??? Almost a grand... PER CREDIT?! That means I would have to pay $970 per four credits. Oh, wait, scuba is a P.E. course, so it's only $970 times 3 credits. Well, that's only $2,910. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? (Plus, one thing I've never understood is that Field Experience credits are counted toward overload. FX is simply two weeks of observation/some lesson planning in January before the semester starts. BEFORE THE SEMESTER STARTS. How in the world will those two credits affect the rest of my semester at college? Oh, that's right. They won't.) Anyway... This was my honest response to the dear lady in charge of registration in the Registrar's office:May I ask, why Westminster College has such a policy? I honestly can't understand why students are charged hundreds of dollars to take a few extra credits, when they aren't being properly challenged by the amount of credits that they are allowed to take. $970 per credit, I'm pointing out in all sincerity, seems like a typo. Is it?
I'd really like to understand this policy because Westminster College is an educational institution. Shouldn't its number one priority be to educate its students and provide proper academic challenges to those who are able and eager to learn? To me, it truly seems like more of a business than a university.
Please help me to understand this concept,
Meghan Blumer
Well, instead of answering any of my questions (except by reaffirming that the amount I had read was indeed correct), she merely asked me to redirect my questions to the President's Cabinet (now we're getting fancy), because that's easier than
explaining to me why my university sees the "Titan" student body more as
clients than learners.So, I did redirect my question. I looked up the emails of the three men to whom she referred me, and I sent them this email:
To the President's Cabinet:
I was redirected to ask my financial question to your cabinet when I asked June Pierce in the Registrar's office about the overload fee. The following was the original email that I had sent to her. I'm having trouble understanding the concept of the "Overload" fee and why it exists at all. I understand that excessive credits sometimes cause students' GPAs to fall, but from the perspective of a student who sincerely can handle the challenge, I ask you: why should we be punished for academic ambition and the desire to learn?
"May I ask, why Westminster College has such a policy? I honestly can't understand why students are charged hundreds of dollars to take a few extra credits, when they aren't being properly challenged by the amount of credits that they are allowed to take. $970 per credit, I'm pointing out in all sincerity, seems like a typo. Is it?I'd really like to understand this policy because Westminster College is an educational institution. Shouldn't its number one priority be to educate its students and provide proper academic challenges to those who are able and eager to learn? To me, it truly seems like more of a business than a university."I send this email with absolute intent to understand the workings of this policy that inhibits my registration every semester at Westminster College. Is there any way to avoid the fee? I'm in college to learn, but I can't comprehend why a student can't take an extra class if he or she isn't being challenged, unless that student pays hundreds (essentially thousands, if it's more than one credit more) to do so.
Please help me to understand this concept,
Meghan Blumer
I'm fired up about it now. Especially because I've got friends who are in the same boat as me, and they literally cannot afford to pay such a fee. So it comes down to paying $970 per credit over 19, or adding another semester on entirely, and graduating late. Or in my case, I'd simply like to take another class. And why shouldn't I?
I thank Chile for showing me that instead of just complaining about injustice in education, do something about it. Well, I'm not there to march or protest, but I sure as heck can send a good email. In my opinion, anyway.
Did you ever hear back from the President's Cabinet?
ReplyDeleteyes, I did. I can forward you the email. I never responded to him because I didn't know what else to say. I made my case, and I appreciated that he actually answered my question, even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear, I guess.
DeleteWell, here's the body of the email:
Delete"When students wasn’t to take more classes than the normal load there are usually at least two issues to address: the first is whether or not the student is capable of meeting the academic demands of this additional class and the second issue is the additional cost to the College. While you might think that it doesn’t cost anything for one student to take an additional class (the class was going to be offered anyway and there was a space available) we actually have a lot of students that take extra classes. As a result, we have to add more classes to our schedule. In order to staff these classes we have to either pay our full-time faculty extra (for teaching more than their contractual teaching load) or we have to hire additional adjunct faculty to teach these additional sections. Again, it doesn’t work out as neatly as I described when you look at just one student taking an overload, but when you look at the cumulative impact of overloads on the College they definitely add additional faculty costs. In order to help recapture these costs Westminster charges an overload fee.
While every college is different in how they determine their fees, I think that it is very common for a college to charge for overload. Many colleges and universities charge on a credit hour basis – the more hours you take the more that you pay.
The goal of Westminster’s overload fee is to recover costs, not to discourage the academic progress of students. Westminster also structured its overload fee in a way so that it does not discourage internships or other programs that are less than four credit hours."