More students consider dropping classes due to online transition

COVID-19 has claimed a number of victims at PNW as the cancellation of in-person classes has driven more students to withdraw from their courses. 

The transition to online courses has not been easy for many students and staff, but students who feel they cannot catch up are clamoring to withdraw. As a result, the number of withdrawals has increased significantly this semester. 

“My office doesn’t track withdrawals, but we have seen an increase in the number of ‘student of concern’ reports, the vast majority … for students who are no longer participating in class,” said Colin Fewer, associate vice chancellor of Student Affairs. “We had a total of 132 of these reports for all of academic year 2018-2019. We’ve had a little over 400 so far this year, with most coming after the transition to online. That’s about a 200% increase. It’s still less than 1% of these total student body, but it does speak to the impact the crisis is having on students.” 

The withdrawal deadline was recently moved to May 1, and the added time has not gone unnoticed by students. Students who previously had not considered dropping a course are now considering it as struggles continue to arise. 

“They recently extended the deadline to drop [a course] and I haven’t been doing well in one of my classes,” said freshman Fiorella Rubio. “The transition to online classes caused my performance to drop. This class is solely lecturing and in-person, I was able to ask questions and address concerns in real time. I can still address questions, but not being in the physical classroom has just made it harder to understand the material at all.” 

Along with extending the withdrawal deadline, the university has also offered the option of Pass/No Pass course grading. This helps students who still need the course completion on their transcript, but do not want the grade to affect their GPA. 

Some universities have expressed concern that students may not return come fall semester, but PNW academic advisor, Rhonda Nemri is confident enrollment will remain steady. 

“In my experience so far, students are enrolling,” said Nemri. “Enrollment is still going on, and registration has not stopped. We are looking forward to working with students and making their college experience beneficial, purposeful and exciting despite the pandemic.” 

Students with questions about course grading or withdrawal should contact their professors, academic advisors and registrar for help.