A policy remnant of DePauw's days as Indiana Asbury University, a largely part-time and commuter-college changed this year.
Now, all students will be sorted into class year based on the number of semesters they have attended DePauw, instead of according to total credits. Registrar and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Ken Kirkpatrick sent an email to all students to notify them of the change.
"We've talked about it forever," Kirkpatrick said. "It was mostly the question of when, so we didn't screw up the enrollment process."
The old policy created problems mostly for students bringing more than four Advanced Placement credits to DePauw. Added to a semester of a normal four course load, those students would advance a year — from freshman to sophomore, and so on — after the first semester of the year.
The former process changed the way registration systems sorted them for classes prioritized for particular classes, housing and financial aid.
For example, a sophomore who carries four AP credits is classified as a junior after his first semester. This could exclude him from a W class, or the other many classes prioritized for sophomores. Either the student forfeited the opportunity to be placed in the class, or the registrar had to intervene and manually change his classification.
"We don't really get a second shot at W courses," said Kirkpatrick about sophomores who miss the chance to take the course. He said that this was the most common problem.
Last year, sophomores classified as juniors by the system were voting for junior class representatives. It also caused discrepancies when students completed paperwork using the grade in which they thought of themselves, instead of how the computer classified them.
This policy has been around for at least 100 years, according to Kirkpatrick who ran across a catalogue from 1912 which noted the policy. It makes sense for colleges that take mostly commuter or part-time students, who may not be able to complete college in four years.
But for the modern DePauw, it caused problems and extra legwork from the Registrar's Office to work around it.
The new policy, keeping students classified in the system by year, has almost no downsides. Largely, only students wishing to graduate early and transfer students will be affected.
During an interview a week after the policy change was announced by email, Kirkpatrick said only two students had emailed him asking to continue to be classified by credits.