Hi @BRADLEYVEST,

This was a change made to Canvas last month.  I do have some good news for you though...  Instructure announced they are going to be largely reverting this change back to prior behavior.  See the  Updates to the Assign To Interface - Instructure Community - 610506  post for more detail.  Unfortunately, they did not announce an exact timeline for this, but I hope it's relatively soon myself!

-Chris