Correction appended: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported in the seventh paragraph that Associate Dean Peggy McCracken accepted the resolutions. It should have said she accepted the letter of support.

Though the continuous enrollment policy in Rackham Graduate School was announced last year, many students involved in negotiations surrounding the policy say they are still unclear on what the policy actually means.

The policy, which was first announced last semester, would require students in a Rackham doctorate programs to register every fall and winter term until they complete their degrees — a change that would consequently decrease tuition rates for graduate students.

From its infancy, the policy suffered from what many consider to be a poor public relations strategy, leaving faculty and students alike confused over the policy’s details and its ramifications for the educational experience in Rackham. That lack of clarity sparked some backlash from students and even prompted the formation of the “Continuous Enrollment Work Group,” an organization of University graduate students who say the proposal was not being accurately portrayed to the Rackham community.

One major effect of the new policy would be that students will be required to pay tuition each semester — something they currently don’t have to do if they decide to take time off to care for children or do special study in the field, though the new policy will accommodate some situations that would allow students not to enroll for a semester.

In the midst of all of this, the Rackham Student Government passed two resolutions over the summer requesting more information about the policy from Rackham administrators.

“Within 48 hours, somewhere around 472 students signed a letter of support for the resolutions just because they were very concerned that they hadn’t had access to this information and were excited about the opportunity,” Rackham student Marie Puccio said.

She added that Associate Dean Peggy McCracken accepted the letter of support.

The first resolution requested Rackham to follow up in writing to the Continuous Enrollment Student Advisory Committee — a group established last spring by the University in order to facilitate communication with Rackham students and the administration — regarding details of the plan and answer questions students felt had gone unanswered.

The second resolution asked Rackham officials to provide students with a written promise that students be “guaranteed a fellowship or an equivalent source of funding,” as a means of lessening the financial burden that the new policy could place on students.

Most doctorate students do not pay their own tuitions. Instead, they are paid by a third party, often the University.

Rackham Dean Janet Weiss said the policy will continue to go forward as planned. When the policy was announced last spring, Weiss set out a timeline, which she said is still in effect. According to the timeline, every school with doctorate students was scheduled to come up with a funding plan, which the 17 schools announced last week.

The next step in the process will be for the Board of Regents to get an informal briefing on the status of the plan, which is scheduled to take place during one of the board's monthly fall meetings. In Winter 2010 officials are scheduled to announce leave of absence policies and then training will begin for staff who work with graduate students. The regents will set tuition rates for Rackham students in June 2010 at the same time they set tuition rates for the rest of the University and the policy will be implemented in the fall semester of 2010.

"None of this is actually going to happen until next September so we still have 10, 11 months to make sure everything is all aligned," Weiss said.