San Jacinto College Central Campus’s Student Government Association (SGA) initiated a resolution committee to propose a revision of Policy V-J, the Student Scheduling Policy, to the Board of Trustees.

The revision proposal includes a clause calling for e-mail notification to students any time a change is made to their schedule.

Policy V-J currently states: “The College reserves the right, when necessary, to cancel classes, change instructors, and otherwise alter the schedule. No charges will be made for changes due to canceled classes. The college will determine when courses are to be offered, size of class enrollments, and location of classes.”

SGA Vice President and head of committees Petra Hernandez said the new clause was developed by Central campus student Kip Glier.

“Kip has worked very hard on the committee,” Hernandez said. “He has put a lot of effort and has done a great job following the guidelines and staying in contact with me and our Adviser Amanda Rose.”

Glier said he was appointed by SGA to lead the resolution committee.

“Adjusting student schedules is, unfortunately, a by-product of school operations,” Glier said.

“However, altering students’ schedules, without their knowledge, infringes upon fundamental student rights and can cause a distraction in the classroom. This policy has been in effect since March 1981 and I believe that the technology of today has far surpassed our current Student Scheduling Policy.”

Glier said the idea for revising the policy stemmed from his own experience of finding a different professor teaching a class than the one listed when he registered. He said he was able to meet with the department head the next day who said every semester, students come to see him wondering why they didn’t get the professor they signed up for.

“As soon as I heard that my heart sunk; that feeling of disregard is not isolated,” Glier said. “I immediately got the chills and from that point on, I could only focus on the other poor souls passing through that office. I could offer a dozen hypothetical negative situations that this policy revision would prevent.”

The resolution committee is in the process of drafting a survey to collect data from the College community regarding student notification of schedule changes, Glier said.

“The survey is certainly the most vital aspect of this Resolution,” he said. “The survey is important because it will provide the Board of Trustees with raw data collected from the student body that will aid them in their decision. Unfortunately, I am unsure of a specific launch date for the survey. However, it should be within the next few weeks.”

Glier said, at the moment, he is the only committee member but is actively attempting to recruit other students to join.

“The committee definitely needs volunteers to help with promoting and drafting the survey,” Glier said. “The only requirement is that committee members be students of San Jac. We welcome participation from all three campuses.”

Furthermore, creating the survey necessitates an extensive amount of research, Glier said.

“The research mainly requires determining whether or not other local community colleges have any type of student notification obligations whenever that respective administration makes any changes to a student’s schedule,” Glier said.

Glier said the committee will, more than likely, propose the revision to the Board of Trustees in the fall.