Nearly one year since the pandemic hit Stevens, the Student Government Association (SGA) continues to recognize that many students are still facing challenges with online classes. The grading policy for spring 2020 was amended to allow students to take classes pass/fail, and similarly, the grading policy for fall 2020 allowed students to take one class pass/fail. Currently, the SGA believes students would benefit from the continuation of the fall 2020 policy in the current Spring 2021 semester.
At the SGA senate meeting on March 7, Eden Luvishis, the newly appointed Academic Affairs Committee Head, said that she would like to push for the continuation of the current pass/fail policy. Her goal is that students should be able to take one course pass/fail for this semester. In a statement about her goals, Luvishis said, “The majority of the student body is still significantly impacted by a heavily modified learning system. I will be pushing to maintain our 1 Optional P/F class that we got last semester.”
The Double A grading scale came up frequently during previous discussions on new grading policies amidst semesters impacted by COVID-19; however, since this policy has been rejected by the Stevens administration in both spring and fall 2020, the SGA does not plan to propose it this semester.
The grading system implemented last semester stipulated that one course could be chosen for pass/fail that would be counted towards any undergraduate academic endeavor (major, minor requirement) regardless of whether the class was taken on campus or online. Students had the option to take the course pass/fail by filling out a Google Forms form up to seven days after all grades have been posted. Undergraduate students taking graduate classes for undergraduate credits could use the policy; however, students taking graduate classes for graduate credit could not.
Last semester, the SGA submitted a detailed list of pros and cons of having a pass/fail grading system and rebuttals to the cons in order to make their case to administration. For example, one of the submitted arguments was about unequal opportunity for students due to home environments. The document states, “There still exist significant technological and accommodation issues, be it lack of accessibility to equipment, stable internet connection, professors falling short in understanding how to use technology, students not having stable home lives or suitable space, et cetera.”
In both the fall and spring 2020 semesters, the SGA sent out a survey to gauge student interest in pass/fail grading policies and received over 600 replies with an overwhelming majority of them being in favor of the policy. Continuing the same process this semester, the survey for students to express their opinion on a pass/fail grading policy for Spring 2021 can be found here.
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