St. Thomas sophomore Zach Schuster posted a petition asking the University of St. Thomas to offer a pass/fail learning option Wednesday after the university’s recent transition to online learning.
The petition was posted to Change.org and reached 100 supporters one hour after posting. After being online for eight hours, the petition topped 1,500 supporters.
On the petition, Schuster listed reasons that the university should consider this option. The petition mentions family stress and income changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the major academic change of transitioning to online learning.
“Some students think that our grades are going to possibly take a hit due to circumstances that we could not control,” Schuster said.
Beyond this, Schuster has doubts about online learning.
“Myself and a lot of other students that I’ve talked to have said that the online learning is going to be less effective than if we were still in class,” Schuster said.
First-year Sophia Faacks agrees that online classes do not work well for her as a student.
“I’m really, really anxious about being online,” Faacks said. “I know I don’t do well in online school.”
Faacks feels that the university should consider differences in learning ability now that many students are moving back home and no longer have access to classroom resources.
“I feel like the petition for pass or fail grades would help be more accommodating for students in different situations,” Faacks said.
University provost Richard Plumb has consulted faculty leaders and the academic deans. This communication started prior to the petition’s development.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer right now, but we are seriously looking at the options,” Plumb said.
Plumb said that, although there are no guarantees right now, the general consensus among staff members is that a pass/fail grading option seems like a good idea.
“We are in extraordinary circumstances,” Plumb said. “We understand the stress that students are in and we don’t want to add more anxiety.”
If the university did offer pass/fail grading, there is a possibility this option would not be extended to some graduate programs due to the nature of these different programs.
“If we do it at the undergraduate level, it would be across the board,” Plumb said.
According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, schools such as Smith College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are already moving to pass/fail grading.
The Minnesota Daily reports that students from at least 47 universities, including the University of Minnesota, are petitioning for similar grading adjustments.
Annie Terry can be reached at Terr2351@stthomas.edu.