Withdrawing a Student

A total withdrawal (the student is leaving the institution, not just one course) is a request that goes through approval and is recorded on the student's academic status.

Filing the request

• A student files their own: Requests > Start a request > Withdrawal from the Institution.
• The registrar files it for a student: open the student's page and choose Withdraw student, which opens the same form already pointed at that student.

The form asks for the reason, the effective date, and (optionally) the last date of attendance and a supporting document.

Approval

By default the student's primary advisor reviews first (the registrar if the student has no advisor on file), then the registrar approves. The chain is ordinary workflow data: add a step, for example financial aid or the business office, under Admin > Workflow Engine > Withdrawal from the Institution.

What approval does

On final approval, in one transaction:

1. Every open section in a term that has not ended is ended. On or before the term's drop deadline it is DROPPED and leaves the transcript; after it, it is WITHDRAWN and stays as a W. The withdrawal deadline is not consulted: the approval is the override.
2. The student's waitlist places are released and the term enrollment rows are marked withdrawn.
3. A Withdrawn row is added to the academic status history, effective on the date requested. Its comments carry the request number, the last date of attendance and the reason.
4. The student status becomes Withdrawn, if it was Active, Inactive or Leave (an open leave of absence is ended). A graduate, or a student already dismissed or deceased, keeps their status and simply has the withdrawal on file.

The automatic probation check and the nightly student-status pass both leave a withdrawn student alone.

Not done automatically

• Seats freed by the withdrawal are offered to waitlisted students the next time a seat in that section opens, not at the moment of approval.
• Planned courses are not cancelled.
• Returning a student is a registrar action: add a new academic status row (for example Regular) and set the student status back to Active.

On a write-restricted instance (the one that sits beside Colleague) approval records nothing, because the student's status belongs to Colleague there.

Leave of absence

A student who is stepping away for a time, not leaving, files a Leave of Absence request instead (Requests > Start a request). It asks for the leave's start, the expected return date and the intended return term.

On final approval the leave is recorded on the student (records.student_leaves), and:

• if the leave has already begun, an Active or Inactive student becomes Leave at once;
• a leave that starts later is started by the nightly student-status pass on its start date;
• the same nightly pass returns the student to Active once the expected return date has passed.

A graduate, or a student who has withdrawn or been dismissed, keeps their status and simply has the leave on file. The nightly pass no longer turns a student on leave back into Active or Inactive because they have no current enrollment. As with a withdrawal, a write-restricted instance records nothing on approval.

Related

• Drops and Withdrawals — leaving one course
• Waitlist