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With students from colleges across the state completing their classes remotely, many schools have made their grading policies more lenient.
Middlebury College, the University of Vermont and all the schools within the Vermont State Colleges system have offered students the option to have some or all of their spring classes graded on a pass or fail basis, rather than traditional assessment.
The interruption of on-campus learning has ignited a debate among higher education students across the country about how they should be graded during the Covid-19 crisis in order to minimize lasting damage to their academic records resulting from the diverse living situations students now find themselves in.
As the semester continues, some students in Vermont say universal “Pass/Fail” grading would be most equitable for those with fewer resources and more stress off-campus. Other students prefer an opt-in system, which will allow them to maintain their GPA with letter grades — since it is easier to “pass” than to get an A, they feel a universal system will obscure their academic achievement when they apply for graduate school programs or jobs.
The changes at Vermont schools come amid a national conversation about how to equitably grade students now that most campuses have emptied through the end of the academic year, and colleges have adopted a variety of different policies in response. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for instance, will allow failed courses to be dropped from student transcripts; Duke University made pass/fail the default but allows students to opt-in for letter grades; and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is keeping letter grades but letting students switch to pass/fail until August.
UVM Provost Patricia Prelock announced the “pass/no pass” option in an email to students on March 27, after students circulated a petition asking the university to loosen grading requirements. The petition received over 3,000 signatures.
“My goal is to ensure students feel supported and heard by our institution in these difficult times, while also ensuring safeguards for their future academic and professional success,” Prelock wrote. “This required a deliberate process for implementing options for academic flexibility.”
The policy allows UVM students to take as many of their courses as they would like on the simplified grading system, including courses within their major. Students can decide to use the assessment option anytime before May 14, and any grade above a D- will show up on a student’s transcript as a “pass.”
Skyler Nash, a junior at UVM who helped circulate the petition online, said while he is not sure he will take advantage of the option, he is relieved to have the choice.
“There’s a lot of stress to be dealing with on top of stressing about school work,” he said. “You wake up and look at the TV and all of a sudden 4,500 more people have died, it can be hard to sit at your desk in your room and go through 16 credits of school work on the laptop.”
The petition also notes that in addition to managing fears about the pandemic, many students do not have the resources they need at home to do well in school.
“It is unfair to punish students who may not have access to a stable internet connection, food, or housing while they are away from campus,” the petition says. “We must also recognize that UVM students reside in many different time zones and having scheduled lectures with strict due dates for assignments may be difficult to adhere to.”
At Middlebury, where students have the option of invoking the college’s “pass/D/fail” system until May 8, there has been an active debate between students about whether this is enough. Under Middlebury’s system, any grade above a C- registers as a pass. The college extended the deadline from May 1 on Friday and offered students a one week window to reverse their decision in response to student concerns
Some Middlebury students are concerned that an opt-in system leaves the most vulnerable students at a disadvantage. These students have started a #FairGradeMidd petition advocating for a change. This campaign encompasses two possible solutions: universal pass/fail, which would make such a policy mandatory, and “dual A,” which would grant every student an A or A- at the professor’s discretion.
Sophomore Paul Flores-Clavel said he supports the #FairGradesMidd movement because he feels it is more equitable.
“There’s no way you can expect people to prioritize their grades over their mental health when their living situation does not allow them to focus on school,” he said. “I have friends who are literally homeless or caring for siblings… You have kids of nurses and doctors who are trying to keep their houses running while their parents fight this pandemic.”
Flores-Clavel feels a universal pass/fail option would avoid forcing some students to justify on future applications why they opted for an easier grading scale.
“I am willing to put my grades on the back burner if it means that the people who really don’t have the capacity to think about their grades right now don’t have to go into job applications and grad school applications and explain why some people have grades and they don’t,” he said.
As the #FairGradesMidd movement gained traction, other students started an #OptInMidd petition in response, advocating for the current system to remain in place in order to give students as much freedom as possible.
Sophomore Yasmine Signey helped start the opt-in petition, and feels that in the long run, more choices will help more people.
“Everyone is going to have different circumstances depending on whether a family member gets sick or not or what their home life is like,” she said. “Not being able to have a say in your grades takes away some of your autonomy.”
Signey said that as a first generation student from a low income family, she worries about feeling further disadvantaged by an incomplete GPA when she applies to jobs and graduate school.
“The whole reason for me to go to college is to make a better life for me and my family,” she said.
Within the Vermont State Colleges, an expanded Pass/Fail option is available in some form at every school, according to Chief Academic Officer Yasmine Ziesler.
“This can be a small way to alleviate some stress for students,” she said. “Overall we think that reassuring students that they have many options that there are plenty of successful ways to get through this semester, that’s our number one goal.”
A petition at Northern Vermont University highlights why the creator, student Luna Crowley, favors the option of Pass/Fail in the face of online courses. The petition has over 400 signatures.
“It is important to give recognition, flexibility and validation to students who are unemployed, displaced, dealing with family members who may be sick, and now have no choice but online instruction,” Crowley wrote. “By having this system be an opt-in pass/fail, it would allow students who want their GPA to be affected by this semester remain that way.”
