Samah Abdulsalem | Recruiment Manager
Featured illustration: Students rush to meet deadlines as September comes to an end. | Jasmine Wiradharma
For many people, going back to school after a long summer of relaxing is exciting. For some—first years, final years, or people who just miss learning, writing and exercising their brains in an academic classroom—it is an electrifying time. If you are anything like the latter, that excitement probably slowly dwindled when you realized in just the first week you have been “York’d” by the refund deadlines.
By the end of June, most students have been granted access to build their schedule for the fall/winter semesters. While most students in neighbouring Toronto schools have later enrollment times, York gives its students more time to change around their schedule throughout the second half of their summer. But in the grand scheme of things, how much is it really worth when you are given little to no time to feel out your schedules and classes at the beginning of the school year?
Students had a week to figure out if their classes were the right fit for them this fall semester. During the week of September 8 to 14, students were given the chance to go to their classes once before making the decision to stay in or drop the class. If every student got into the classes they wanted after reading a 250-word course description—with no syllabus or outline—and were 100 per cent sure about taking it, this would not be an issue worth writing about. But alas, the first week of school came and there were fourth-year students who couldn’t get into the classes they needed to graduate and first-year students who probably realized they needed to take PSYC 1010 if they wanted to take upper-level psychology classes in the future.
What this too-short deadline does not consider is the needed adjustment period. Students need more time to talk with their academic advisor, professors and program directors, which, as all seasoned York students know, takes time and commitment. This is not to discount the time we all took during the summer to figure out our courses and fitting them into our brick-by-brick schedule, but that time does not always translate into perfect schedules. There are many issues along the way.
“I tried to get into a class and it became this long and stressful process. It was a full class so I needed to talk an advisor, then I needed special permission and then I was told the room had reached its capacity and I would have to wait to see if the room changed,” says third-year business and society student Farah Isahack. “Now it is past the deadline and I will most likely be stuck in a class I do not want because I can’t afford to drop it.”
After the September 15 full refund deadline, students get back 90 per cent of their money if the course is dropped by September 21, or 80 per cent by September 28, 40 per cent by October 5 and nothing back after October 6.
For many students, what this deadline does is make them choose between their education and their money. There is a constant struggle between whether they should drop class A and pray they get into class B, or keep class A and wait until they are guaranteed a spot in class B, while losing 10, 20, 60 or 100 per cent of their money.
“I have never dropped a class in my years at York. It’s not because I did not want to, but when I did want to, it was hard because I didn’t want to lose my money or I didn’t want to mess up my academic timeline. I wish they would be more flexible,” says fourth-year accounting student Amarpreet Dhami.
Among other things, the refund deadline causes stress and despair for students. At York, there is no shortage of disappointment when it comes to the relationship between the administration and students. My point here is not to dispute refund deadlines in their totality, but to give students more flexibility. There should be deadlines, and people should be penalized for taking up a spot in a class where someone else could have happily been.
But one week is far too short for a school that caters to almost 46,400 undergraduate students to decide on their courses. Adding a few more days would give students and administration more time to adjust, re-adjust, and re-adjust some more. We need time, because this, as York always preaches, is our time.
