Beginning in fall 2012, UC Berkeley students must fulfill the Reading and Composition requirement at the end of their sophomore year or face blocks on their registration.

The policy change is intended to limit R&C classes to underclassmen. Currently, there are 1,800 students in the College of Letters and Science who have not fulfilled the requirement. If they fail to do so by the end of their sophomore year, a block will be placed on their registration, preventing them from enrolling in classes for the fall.

Noah Ickowitz, a junior studying political economy, had planned to fulfill the requirement in the fall of 2012 because as an underclassman, he wanted to explore classes to decide his major. But because of the change in policy, he has to take the requirement in the spring.

“Having to change your plans in the middle of your college career is ridiculous,” he said. “I have all these different classes that I have to take for my major next semester that I can’t take because of the requirement.”

According to Samar Shah, the ASUC student advocate, the only way for students to overcome the block is to meet with their advisers and demonstrate commitment to take the requirement during the summer, which can be expensive and limit students’ opportunities to pursue internships or jobs.

If a student is unable to demonstrate a commitment to fulfill the requirement in the summer, he or she must take the class at a community college while also enrolled in UC Berkeley.

“(The policy) is forcing you to take classes off campus to enroll in classes in the university,” Shah said.

According to an email sent to the ASUC from George Breslauer, executive vice chancellor and provost, the changes to the policy intended to ensure that lower division students have access to requirement courses.

However, the backlog of upper division students who have not completed the requirement has necessitated high levels of funding to provide enough seats for juniors and seniors to fulfill the requirement during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years.

In an attempt to reduce the level of funding allocated to the initiative and to prevent a future backlog, the administration decided to limit R&C courses to freshmen and sophomores.

In the early spring of 2010, the administration launched a publicity campaign to prepare students for the changes. Upperclassmen who needed to complete the requirement received an email from their respective college in May 2010 advising students to promptly fulfill the requirement. A campuswide email was also sent in March 2010 with a message from Breslauer concerning the changes.

ASUC Academic Affairs Vice President Julia Joung said the ASUC’s concerns regarding a lack of communication from the university were appeased by the evidence of publicity, but she said the method of communication remains questionable.

“It is justifiable because it was ample amount of notice, but the reality is that not many students read campuswide emails,” Joung said.

Of the 1,800 students still needing to fulfill the R&C requirement in the college, 328 sophomores, juniors and seniors need to take both an R1A and R1B class and 1761 sophomores, juniors and seniors need the R1B requirement.

The ASUC proposes that the policy be grandfathered in and only applicable to incoming freshman and sophomores, allowing upperclassmen to fulfill the requirement as they had previously planned, Joung said.

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