Over the past two weeks, a survey pertaining to a proposed change to the grading policy for the Fall 2020 semester has been circulating through Slack channels, GroupMe group chats, and other platforms. A group of students created the survey to gauge interest on modifying the current grading policy. The students are proposing an Optional Pass/Fail (P/F) grading policy for two courses.
On October 15, Patricia Pulini, Jason Buckman, Robert Adams and others began disseminating the Google form to close friends and asking them to send it out to their networks. Pulini, the main organizer of the survey, expressed that her motive for creating the survey was due to her feeling that Stevens students’ mental health is suffering and some professors are not being sympathetic to students’ situations. Pulini said, “Our professors weren’t really ready. Even though they were expecting it, they haven’t been handling it the best I know that even though you’d think they’d be more forgiving, some professors have actually been handing out more work and have not been forgiving at all with test times and other things.”
One question the survey contains is, “Do you feel as though this policy will help your mental health?” with a follow up question of, “Why or why not?”. As of late, 92% of respondents have responded with yes. There have been personal and elaborate responses to this question, such as many students explaining that due to the pandemic, students feel lonely due to social isolation and difficult access to socialization. Students additionally noted a feeling of disengagement in their classes, making it harder to communicate with professors during office hours. On top of that, some individuals explained they are working one or more part time jobs because of an economic shift in their families which has added weight to their shoulders.
Initially, the organizers of the survey had been blasting group chats, hoping it would reach a large portion of the student body. Pulini expressed, “I wasn’t really expecting large organization help for a lot of the start of how I was distributing it.” She explained that she asked student organizations she participates in for support, but was denied assistance as many students feared backlash from administration. However, this changed on October 19, when a representative of the Student Government Association (SGA) reached out to Pulini stating they would help distribute the survey as well as reach out to administrators.
According to Buckman, the survey currently has approximately 500 responses. The next step the organizers are taking is seeking help from the SGA to draft a proposal to administrators to try to get their proposed grading policy passed.
On behalf of the SGA, newly elected Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, Andrew Kinney, said, “We think there is definitely still a chance, even though we knew a virtual semester was coming that doesn’t mean we were ready for it.” He mentioned that there are additional concerns other than just being online that make classes difficult for many students, such as the lack of internet access and a calm study space.
Both Kinney and Pulini emphasized that the pandemic has negatively affected students’ mental health. While there are some socially distant in-person events on campus, many social events have been cancelled. Social distance protocols limit student contact with peers, and most meetings and classes are occuring over Zoom. Kinney explained that, “But at the same time, none of our responsibilities have really been reduced, classes are still happening, club responsibilities are still very real, students are still searching for jobs that are much more difficult to find, some are working more during the semester, etc. We’re all still working hard, but almost all of the playing is gone.”
With the semester more than halfway done, the clock is ticking to pass the proposal. For more information, the survey link is here.
Be First to Comment