On March 22, Provost Christophe Pierre sent an email to the student body announcing a new pass/fail grading policy for Stevens undergraduate students. The policy was a result of cooperation between the Student Government Association (SGA) and the administration, but following the addition of the policy, members of the SGA brought up the Double-A grading policy as an alternative.
The Double-A grading policy received popularity at Harvard, where students formed a group known as “Harvard for All” in favor of supporting a Double-A policy. According to this group, “Under a Double A system, students would receive credit for all of their courses and a grade of either ‘A’ or ‘A-’ on their transcript. Faculty can distribute between these two A grades at their own discretion, with no mandated distribution requirements.”
Members of the SGA advocated for a Double-A policy on the basis of helping students retain a high GPA during the pandemic. Without this policy, students may still have concerns about maintaining good enough grades to keep up appearances for companies and graduate programs since there is a stigma around opting into pass/fail which could make a student less competitive when searching for a job. Supporters of this policy claim that it is more equitable than alternatives by eliminating the stigma associated with pass/fail, thus avoiding pressuring students into retaining a letter grade during a time when a variety of other factors such as home environment, health, and finances may demand more effort to maintain.
Alternatively, other members of the SGA stand by the decision to have a pass/fail grading policy. The pass/fail policy supports students that need it by taking some of the pressure off schoolwork. The policy is also opt-in and determined after final grades are in, which means that students have more agency in determining what their transcript looks like.
Both policies intend to decrease the effective workload on the student body for those who need it. This allows for students to focus on the more demanding things required of them during this time, but it can be abused.
The Double-A policy could be easy to abuse since it allows all students to increase their grades for this semester, though there would be a failing option if students are not fulfilling basic requirements for the class. There is concern that this policy would allow the entire student body to benefit from the misfortune of a few by allowing students who don’t need the help to get a higher GPA for less effort. In doing so, the policy would also devalue the work of the students that continue to keep up with their schoolwork.
The pass/fail system has this issue as well, but still retains some incentive for students to continue working on their studies. Since a letter grade is typically preferred over a pass/fail, students would feel inclined to work towards a letter grade, but the pass/fail option could be relied upon if and when the circumstances demand it. And if students cannot fulfill certain basic requirements in the class or have an Honor Board violation, there is still the possibility of failing. This could make things difficult for some students that cannot fulfill these requirements, but prevents the blatant abuse of the system.
The SGA has also been taking into account the effect of an opt-in or universal program for the pass/fail policy. Opt-in programs allow students more agency than a universal policy, but also discriminates between students who opt in and who opt out. Opting in could be worse as a result of the associated stigma, whereas a universal system would make everyone take a pass/fail on all their classes, which may feel unfair to students that prefer a letter grade.
Members of the SGA also believe it’s important to consider the involvement of administration in the implementation of these policies. Administration has already set up the pass/fail system, which accommodates students in that it allows a decision to be made after the class has finished and it reduces the academic requirements to maintain a scholarship. Because of the addition of the pass/fail policy, which already tries to accommodate students, administrators may feel their work is unappreciated or that students simply want an ‘easy A’. Pushing the Double-A policy, which has not been approved at any other school, would seem like a drastic measure and might make working with them in the future more difficult.
To determine student interest, the SGA Diversity and Inclusion Committee (D&I) spearheaded the project by releasing a survey to gather student input on the issue. The survey collected a total of 500 responses, which were generally in favor of a Double-A policy. However, during an SGA meeting this Sunday, the validity of the survey was questioned on the basis of being biased towards supporting the Double-A policy.
Because of this, the SGA has decided to postpone making an official decision on whether or not to support the Double-A policy until more information can be obtained. Some members of the SGA discussed making another survey, but it is unclear whether this will be done or if the SGA will take a different approach to determining student interest in these policies.
The topic is planned to be brought up at the next SGA meeting on Sunday, but students with thoughts or opinions on the subject should reach out to an SGA representative to share them.
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