Your alarm clock goes off. You stumble your way to the nightstand and press the snooze button. Five awesome minutes later, another really annoying radio jingle pollutes your ears. You get up again and turn the clock off.After drifting back to dreaming about Scarlett Johansson, you are once again awakened, this time by your cell phone alarm. You look at the screen which reads “Bio exam #2.” Great. Another exam for a class you haven’t been to in weeks. You start to weigh your options.Failing would suck. The comfort of your bed says otherwise, but you know you shouldn’t just sleep it away.Then the magical letter pops into your mind, the great twenty-third letter of the alphabet that’s been saving struggling students forever: “W.”After a quick logging on to Paws and a few clicks the deed is done. Instead of having a failing grade for the course, you now just get a withdrawal grade.LSU’s new W policy going into effect this fall is great news for both students and the University.The previous policy broke down W’s into five tiers. Tier one, freshmen with 0-29 hours, were allowed three W grades. The other four tiers (30-59, 60-91, 92-119, and more than 119 hours) were allowed only one W grade.The new policy changes the number of tiers from five to three. The first tier is students with 0-59 hours and is allowed three W grades. The second tier is 60-119 hours and also allows three W grades. Finally the third tier is above 119 hours and allows only one W.The group most negatively affected by this new policy is freshmen. No longer can a LSU noob “find out about college” by earning three W’s in less than 30 hours. As per the new policy, it is now stretched out to 60 hours.As an incoming senior, I am happy to see I now have an additional opportunity to use a W.  Lo and behold I’m also in the lucky group that got to use an extra “W” during previous tiers because of the new policy’s grandfathered clause. Thank you, LSU.Although I am a supporter of Ws I think that setting a limit is the right decision by the administration. Some schools like Florida, offer students unlimited W’s. This seems like a classic case of “too much of anything is a bad thing.” I could see some people racking up W’s until they’ve reached Van Wilder-like years in enrollment.I know pre-med and law students and generally anyone interested in going to grad school might be worried about having a W on their transcripts. That decision is up to you, but a W is definitely better than a failing course grade. An F will bring 0 points to your grade point average while a W does not hurt or help the GPA.The University will also benefit from this new policy. Hypothetically, a student could fail a class, bring down his grade point average low enough and eventually flunk out of LSU altogether. I’m sure we all know someone who has done this.With (hopefully) more upperclassmen staying in school because of the new policies, the University will boast a higher graduation rate along with an overall higher grade point averages across the board. Several W grades will often lead to a student having to enroll in school additional semesters, bringing more money to the University.So when you’re at a crossroads in life next midterms and can’t decide if you should study for a class you are already failing or head out to Boogie’s to slam brews, keep the new W policy in mind. It always comes in handy.–Contact Cory Cox at [email protected]