A new task force is gathering student feedback on Barnard’s decision to require full-time tuition.
Students have continued to express concerns since Dean Avis Hinkson’s announcement in October that students will no longer be allowed to pay part-time tuition for semesters in which they take fewer than 12 credits. Now, a task force of the Student Government Association plans to organize that feedback through a student survey.
This week, Rachel Ferrari, BC ’13 and SGA vice president for student government, and six other task force members are sending out the survey, which they hope to analyze and show to Hinkson before Barnard’s program filing period ends on Nov. 21.
“I would like her to understand that this policy did affect the program filing that’s going to occur on Wednesday. We jumped on this as quickly as we could, but I wish we could have completed the survey by Nov. 9,” when program filing begins, Ferrari said.
Some students objected to the timing of Hinkson’s policy announcement, which was made one month into the fall semester—after they had already planned their schedules around one or more part-time semesters.
Naomi Roochnik, now BC ’12, was BC ’13 when she began the semester. She had planned to take off the first half of her senior year to work and then spend her last semester as a part-time student, finishing her senior thesis.
“Everything changed when I got that email last month, because suddenly that was no longer an option. So instead I have to cram a lot of classes in for this semester and next semester so I can graduate this May,” Roochnik said.
Hinkson said she understands students’ concerns about the timing, and said she hopes to help those seeking exemptions by meeting with them individually.
“As students come forth and share their specifics, as with all situations, I want to hear their particular cases and work with them to identify what options might be available,” Hinkson said.
But some students are not completely satisfied with this response. Shira Borzak, BC ’12, is not affiliated with SGA but requested to join the task force because she felt so strongly about the policy.
“I think it could be really negative if students feel like they’re being pushed out, if they feel like they need to graduate before they’re ready,” Borzak said. “I hope that she [Hinkson] realizes the magnitude of this and wish that she would be a little more sensitive and honest with it.”
Ferrari says she hopes to show Hinkson and other administrators what students think by compiling the results of the survey, which can be found at www.tinyurl.com/barnardenroll.
“I hope that Dean Hinkson is willing to continue the conversation, because on the student side of it the conversation is not over,” Ferrari said.
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