Last week, the SMU Student Senate passed legislation to push back the date to withdraw from classes to 20 days before the end of the semester.

It has, on average, been around 29 days before the end of the semester.

The Senate voted unanimously in favor of moving the withdrawal date back.

“I came onto this legislation because it came out of personal experience,” said Gabriella Gonzalez, a senator.

According to her, if the withdrawal date had been pushed back, she would’ve been able to give herself a break of sorts her sophomore year.

Experiences like Gonzalez’s were taken into account when Senate decided to challenge the former withdrawal date.

The legislation states that students are often not fully informed of their standing in a class when the former withdrawal date would come around every semester.

It also states that students withdraw for a variety of reasons that can be unpredictable; including family emergencies, illness, injuries or other unforeseen circumstances.

Another related piece of legislation, which was passed two years ago, moved the class drop date from one week to two weeks after classes had started, according to President David Shirzad.

However, Shirzad said, the legislation was not implemented until this academic year.

The most recent legislation regarding the withdrawal date still needs to go through specific SMU officials before becoming active, according to Shirzad.