- #1
Pengwuino
Gold Member
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Can someone tell me the legal status (preferably in California if you know it) of the course catalog given to public university students? In other words, if something is written in the catalog (and without any of the "this is subject to change" stuff) for the year a student enters a university, is a university legally obligated to follow those terms? And how much weight does the catalog hold in forcing a university to do something?
The reason I ask is I was suppose to finish my MS thesis last fall. Due to the ridiculous deadlines imposed, I wasn't able to. Fair enough, few in our department ever make the deadline. So the plan was to enroll into continuation and finish up and submit during the Fall. However, as the deadline looms, there's a chance I may not even finish by that deadline (especially if I get a job offer within the next couple of weeks) and would have to go on towards the spring. Typically what some students did was, because of whatever reason, keep enrolling even past the semester beyond their thesis course. Some even took 3 years more than usual to officially graduate! The thing is, enrolling in continuation gives you two options. One is a 0-unit course so that you can just work on your thesis and be officially enrolled. This option costs students $350 a semester now; very cheap. The other option is pretty much normal enrollment paying part-time tuition which is ~$1800 but that let's you take classes and what not.
Last semester the graduate division, out of nowhere, decided to put a stop to this. Starting in the spring semester, EVERYONE must use the half-tuition option, no 0-unit courses and we'd be forced to sign up for some sort of class. They tried to do it so that the policy started in the Fall, but people went nuts on them and they retracted that and said it would start in Spring.
So in my catalog, it explicitly states that I have the option to do the 0-unit enrollment course if I need to prolong my admission to my university. The graduate division is trying to say no, not anymore. So clearly, I'm VERY curious as to what the legal standing of a course catalog is. My graduate adviser says this is grounds for a lawsuit, but I just wanted to get some other opinions as well.
The reason I ask is I was suppose to finish my MS thesis last fall. Due to the ridiculous deadlines imposed, I wasn't able to. Fair enough, few in our department ever make the deadline. So the plan was to enroll into continuation and finish up and submit during the Fall. However, as the deadline looms, there's a chance I may not even finish by that deadline (especially if I get a job offer within the next couple of weeks) and would have to go on towards the spring. Typically what some students did was, because of whatever reason, keep enrolling even past the semester beyond their thesis course. Some even took 3 years more than usual to officially graduate! The thing is, enrolling in continuation gives you two options. One is a 0-unit course so that you can just work on your thesis and be officially enrolled. This option costs students $350 a semester now; very cheap. The other option is pretty much normal enrollment paying part-time tuition which is ~$1800 but that let's you take classes and what not.
Last semester the graduate division, out of nowhere, decided to put a stop to this. Starting in the spring semester, EVERYONE must use the half-tuition option, no 0-unit courses and we'd be forced to sign up for some sort of class. They tried to do it so that the policy started in the Fall, but people went nuts on them and they retracted that and said it would start in Spring.
So in my catalog, it explicitly states that I have the option to do the 0-unit enrollment course if I need to prolong my admission to my university. The graduate division is trying to say no, not anymore. So clearly, I'm VERY curious as to what the legal standing of a course catalog is. My graduate adviser says this is grounds for a lawsuit, but I just wanted to get some other opinions as well.
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