Because of time problems surrounding dropping and adding courses, the Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly is looking into creating a survey aimed at evaluating the drop/add period at Penn State.

"The Academic Assembly decided to look into the drop/add period based on some anecdotal complaints that seemed valid and quite possibly representative of a problem," said College of Liberal Arts Rep. Nicole Belolan, chair of the academic research and action committee.

Assembly President Mark Levin said the assembly was concerned with the lack of time students currently have to drop or add a class.

"The first Tuesday is normally a Friday class, and often labs are canceled the next week," Levin said. "Many times, students who don't want to be penalized are forced to decide whether they should drop the class before ever attending the lab."

Belolan contacted Lynda Goldstein, chair of the Faculty Senate's admissions, records, scheduling and student aid committee, and asked the Senate to look into changing the dates.

The idea of creating a student survey was suggested to evaluate the situation.

"We wanted more information on the subject," Goldstein said. "The change depends on the results of the survey."

Levin said the committee is still working out the details of the survey.

"The survey is intended just to find out what problems students are having and what recommendations they have," Levin said.

He said the committee is working with the English department in order to distribute the surveys in classes, along with the Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness (SRTE) surveys.

Belolan said the survey is supposed to assess student opinion about the drop/add period, determining if there is a significant number of classes and labs that meet before the period is over, and deciding if students understand the process of adding a class after the drop/add period ends.

She said an assembly committee last year wrote a piece of legislation as a recommendation to make changes to the drop/add period. "It was sent back to committee and wasn't finished last year," Belolan said. "Therefore, my committee tackled it this semester.

At Monday's assembly meeting, legislators will vote on a bill pertaining to the surveys.