There’s been a slight drop in students making schedule changes after administrators tacked on a bigger price tag to the add/drop fee.

In April, the Board of Regents voted to increase the fee for adding or dropping a class after the first six days of each semester from $20 to $50 starting this fall.

So far, there’s been about a 10.3 percent decrease in students adding and dropping classes.

This fall, 2,471 students added or dropped a class after the deadline, as opposed to 2,756 last fall, Bursar Belinda Higginbotham said.

This fall’s number isn’t final, because some students still make schedule changes in November and December, Higginbotham said.

Students can add or drop classes for free the first six days of the semester, she said.

Higginbotham said she couldn’t predict whether the higher fee prevented students from dropping after the deadline.

But she said students who need to get out of a certain class will probably drop it, regardless of the cost.

The $50 fee has more than doubled the amount of money Western gets from the add/drop fee.

The combined revenue from students adding and dropping classes in September and October 2008 was $71,208, said Ann Mead, vice president for Finance and Administration.

For the same period this year, the revenue was $154,400, she said.

Most of that money came from students dropping classes, Mead said.

The add/drop fee increase replaced another proposal, which would have added a $30 fee for each credit hour a student takes exceeding 15 hours.

Both fees were intended to offset the costs of added course sections which might require hiring additional faculty. Those courses could become unneeded when students start dropping classes a couple of weeks into the semester.

Students who take more than 15 hours per semester aren’t doing anything wrong, said Student Government Association President Kevin Smiley.

In fact, they’re often trying to further their education and graduate on time, he said.

But students who “course shop,” or register for more hours than they need, knowing they will drop some, cost Western money, he said.

“Why penalize the people who aren’t doing anything wrong?” Smiley said of the proposed $30 fee for students taking more than 15 hours.

Smiley said he realizes that it’s necessary to drop a class in some cases, though.

But course shopping is a “legitimate problem,” he said.