But there's still two problems.

1) Are you sure nothing else is using that column you're about to drop? Really really sure? Because you may not have been religious about using stored procedures for updates. in fact, if you're using MySQL then you definitely weren't.

2) Yes, you have to commit to it. Who's responsible for making sure it's followed? Who's responsible for defining the procedure to begin with?

Bottom line, any non-trivial DB should be run by a non-trivial DBA. I am a trivial DBA.