Loyalist withdrawal deadline too early for some students

By Taylor Renkema

Students and faculty have mixed feelings on the deadline to withdraw from a program at Loyalist for a full refund.

After just two weeks in school, September 18 is this year’s deadline.

Laura Naumann, who works in the registrar’s office, said students who withdraw before the deadline will get all of their tuition and ancillary fees refunded, except for a $150 deferral and down payment fee. She said students will not have any academic penalty on their record.

She said whether or not the deadline is too soon depends on the student.

“Generally it [two weeks] will give them enough time and exposure to the classroom to understand whether or not they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, or if it’s a good fit for them,” she said. “It depends if they can contend with the homework and the classes and the environment.”

Naumann said the students who drop out after the deadline do not get any of their tuition or ancillary fees back. She said the money is used on operating costs like the health center, faculty salaries, and infrastructure, such as the lights and hot water.

Students who choose to leave will almost always have an exit interview, where they meet with their Student Success Mentor and/or Program Coordinator to try and work out a solution, but Naumann said sometimes there isn’t one.

“If it’s homesickness, often there’s nothing we can do, except maybe show them a college that’s closer to home for them,” she said.

Kaylin Murphy, a photojournalism student at Loyalist, said she thinks the deadline is too soon.

“We don’t have enough time to actually get used to our course and get the feel of it before we drop out,” she said.

Murphy’s classmate Mitch Ward agreed, saying the deadline is definitely too early.

“Some students want to stick around before they make the decision to drop out, to see if it really is what they want,” he said.

Biotechnology student Monal Patel thinks students have more than enough time to make the decision.

“It’s been two weeks, lots of syllabus has been covered,” Patel said.

Jane Harrison, dean of media arts an design, said she handles each withdrawal case differently.

“To the person who has accepted a job, we say congratulations,” she said. “That’s a life choice. The person who is young and homesick- we don’t try and coerce them into staying, but we do try and point out to them that it’s early days yet.”

Harrison said as of 3 o’clock Monday afternoon she had signed six withdrawal forms for media students.

She said there are some extreme cases where an exception is made and a student is refunded after the deadline.

“It’s based on things like when there’s grief, when there’s been an accident, where a person isn’t able to continue,” she said.

Naumann agreed and said the college tries to be flexible with individual cases, especially when someone has a tragedy.

“We had a young student once who was in a severe car accident and was paralyzed. Of course that was an exception to the rule. Are we heartless? Absolutely not,” she said.

The withdrawal deadline is around the same time at other Ontario colleges such as Seneca, Algonquin, and St. Lawrence.