This Inside Higher Ed piece reports on attempts to limit students from “fishing” for easy courses by limiting the number of courses they’re allowed to drop.
It’s good that some schools recognize that it is a problem that some students fish for the easiest courses, so as to graduate with the least amount of work. My guess is that students who want to coast through to their degrees will find means of identifying the fluff courses so they won’t need to go over their limit of drops.
The only real solution, of course, is to get rid of the fluff courses and insist that profs require rigorous academic standards in all their courses. That won’t happen because so many students and professors would throw a fit.
