ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President Jennifer Tran sent a letter to campus administration on behalf of the ASUC, opposing a proposal which would move up the add/drop deadline to Week 3 of the semester.
The ASUC Senate unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the letter during its most recent meeting.
The new add/drop proposal was created by the Council of Undergraduate Deans, or CUD, an advisory group to the vice provost of undergraduate education, as well as a planning group for undergraduate education across campus.
“I believe that the issue CUD is trying to resolve is an issue that spans directly from our lack of capacity at UC Berkeley,” Tran said.
Currently, there is an early add/drop deadline at Week 2 and a late add/drop deadline at Week 4. The proposal would combine the add/drop deadlines into one and could go into effect as early as next fall, according to the ASUC resolution.
Last October, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Oliver O’Reilly said the change aims to address concerns of students “disadvantaged” by the current system. This proposal has been a point of concern between the ASUC Office of Academic Affairs and CUD.
“The council has actually been interested in moving this deadline earlier for many years,” Tran said. “Their plan was actually to move the add/drop deadlines forward at the rate of about one week per year with the intention of eventually getting to a single add/drop deadline.”
Tran worked closely with CUD to develop a campuswide student survey about the add/drop deadline. Tran said she pushed for the survey to be incorporated with the Spring Pulse survey, but that was denied by CUD due to the timeline they sought to follow.
The survey was conducted from December 2025 through January 2026, and it only received 247 responses. Tran said that 93.5% of students reported at least one negative impact of moving up the add/drop deadline.
“Our survey found that the top three reasons students drop a class after Week 3 is unexpected workload, performance concern, or course fit,” Tran said. “Each of these reasons really only becomes clear with time.”
Other findings include that students would rather have “standardized syllabi and an assessment calendar,” according to Tran.
Tran added that she believes students most likely to be affected include those working part time, following financial aid unit minimums, international students with visa requirements and underrepresented students navigating multiple responsibilities on campus.
Tran voiced concerns that the proposal allegedly lacked responses from students that were in favor of the change, and evidence that they were even consulted.
“Students rely on the time that they (have until) Week 4 in their decision to drop or stay in courses,” Tran said.