Open Letter from Devorah Feldman

"Start Here": The Need For Grace
ACC belongs to the community. So when the college that boasts of accessibility and open doors proposes changes that will shut the doors on many students, eyebrows are raised.
The recommendation is to end registration and add/drop the Friday before classes start with no option for late registrants to enter 16-week classes.

ACC serves to provide retraining, build bridges, offer second chances. ACC is here to inspire intellectual curiosity, provide safe haven, and challenge students to think more critically about the world around them. The college takes pride in serving diverse populations of students, and so far, late registrants have been welcomed among those students. ACC currently offers a three-day grace period that allows for late entry and schedule tweaking. This element of grace will be abandoned, however, if the proposal passes. Late students may be advised into 12-week or 8-week classes, but the selections, times, and locations will be considerably limited. Furthermore, short sessions require that students grasp 16 weeks' worth of material in 12 or 8 weeks. Perhaps the very factors that caused them to register late (e.g. work or family conflicts) are the same reasons for not advising them into shorter, more intense classes.

Proponents believe that students who register late have a higher rate of failure, citing studies that show correlation but not causation. Some students who register on time miss the first class. Should they be deregistered using the same logic? And is missing the first class so much more unforgiveable than missing the middle class, maybe an important review session or lab? In fact, a student who is willing to catch up on missed work will find a way to do so, whether it is the first class or the tenth class. Furthermore, it is logically unsound to attribute a student's failure to having registered late, rather than to a myriad of factors, such as lack of preparedness, lack of commitment, or conflicting priorities.

In addition to data, let's consider the facts. There are reasons that students register late. A student may enter late because her work schedule has changed to allow her to take classes. Late registrants can include recently laid-off workers, mothers with childcare concerns, students awaiting funding, overseas travelers, or newly arrived residents.

Colleges cannot control the countless external factors leading to late registration, but they can do their best once the student arrives.

Let's keep this in mind: ACC belongs to the community. The students and the community at large should be invited to weigh in on this proposed change that redefines the culture of the college, restricts academic freedom, and compromises ACC's open door policy.

The views expressed here are intended to represent mine alone.

Devorah Feldman,
ACC Professor