The policy was approved by the UCSD Committee of Educational Policy on March 2, then announced to the student body via e-mails from the college provosts. In addition, students who have already withdrawn from one or more classes can petition to have those ‘W’s removed from their transcipts.

According to CEP Chair Stefan Llewellyn-Smith, students must first work with both their academic counselor and college provost to discuss other academic options. They must then file an Undergraduate Student Petition to withdraw without a ‘W,’ explaining why withdrawal is necessary and how academic work has been negatively affected. The committee will approve requests only after students have followed all these steps.

Both Llewellyn-Smith and James Levin, vice chair of the CEP, said the special policy was created to offer students academic flexibility in light of racial tensions on campus, including three protests during Week Eight.

Llewellyn-Smith said the committee, which hashed out the policy over e-mail, was unanimously in favor of offering students the chance to remove their ‘W’s.

“These are important requests that don’t just come out of blue,” he said. “They’re not arbitrary constructs. This is for students in unusual, exceptional situations.”

Llewellyn-Smith and Levin agreed the option should be a last resort.

“We hope that students can find an alternate to this since they would be losing the quarter,” Levin said. “We really want students to find other options and work with their counselors before turning to this. But if all else fails, we hope this will reduce the stress level of the students.”

Llewellyn-Smith has approved one request so far, and said he may receive more in the coming week.

Although the regular deadline to withdraw from specific courses passed on March 5, the deadline to withdraw from all classes without a ‘W’ has been extended to Friday, March 12. 

Readers can contact Angela Chen at [email protected].