Dorm Rooms Are Revoked Over Grades

[flashl]

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — The day before she was to return to the State University of New York campus here for her second semester, Denisha Dennis opened a letter from the administration to learn she had been kicked out of the dormitory because her grade point average had fallen below 2.0.

She rushed to clear out her belongings from her room in the Woodlands residence halls, but found that her ID card would no longer open the building door. She soon learned she had been removed from the meal plan, too, under a policy crackdown intended to boost academic performance at Old Westbury, a small state school on Long Island.

Now Ms. Dennis, 20, a sociology major, is left to commute from her parents’ home in Mount Vernon, N.Y., a two-and-a-half-hour, $30-a-day slog that could constitute a graduate course in transit. She takes the bus to the subway to Pennsylvania Station, then the Long Island Rail Road to Hicksville, and finally a cab to campus. She is thinking of dropping out — as 23 of the 87 students ousted from the dorms last month have already done.

“With all the changing and transfers, I can’t concentrate on studying, so it’s five hours a day wasted,” said Ms. Dennis, adding that her average had slipped to 1.9 because she got sick during the week of final exams. “It feels like they just want the struggling students to drop out.”

NY Times

[lynch03]

1. What a horrible policy. n/t

[murielm99]

2. They would be better off providing tutors,

or a learning resource center where motivated but struggling students could get help.

College is a huge adjustment for some students. This sounds like a terrible policy.

[Dr. Strange]

4. If it's like most colleges, they probably already have this.

I'm surprised they would do this for students falling below a 2.0. I could see it for students who weren't going to class (thereby making room for students who actually DO go to class). But something this drastic? Seems odd.

[madeline_con]

7. Was her attendance mentioned in the article? eom

[Dr. Strange]

8. Nope...

just that her GPA fell below 2.0.

[TheUniverse]

3. So depriving students of food and a place to sleep = better grades?

[fortyfeetunder]

5. This is draconian...

Commuting to campus is hardship enough.
This is a state university? I think she should write Sen. Clinton about this...

[madeline_con]

6. Did she ever get her stuff back?