In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, most students can agree that Boston College has been doing a remarkable job conducting and enforcing its own on-campus testing program for COVID-19.

However, while still having the option to attend lectures in-person is a rare privilege not many students have across the U.S, the academic resources currently available at BC are far more limited than usual.

In fact, most of such issues come from outside of the BC community. The COVID-19 infection rate is rising across most, if not all, U.S. states, and by now most people know at least one person with an infected friend or family member. Even if students wish to return home over the weekend to reconnect with family, many feel guilt in doing so because the university actively discourages it in order to limit virus spread (which is perfectly understandable epidemiologically).

Just in general, students have a difficult time finding a quiet place and hour without distractions in order to complete their work.

Now, one may argue, “why not take the semester off?” to students that complain about the abnormalities, and the answer is that such is not a necessarily viable option for many students. Some students have already accepted job offers that start immediately after their planned graduation date. Meanwhile, those coming from lower income households are working hard to graduate as early as possible, in order to start earning money and pay back debts such as rent and student loans. For these people, taking a gap semester means incurring an opportunity cost of five months’ worth of income from a job requiring a university degree.

As can be seen, schoolwork is incredibly difficult to manage and simply not the most important thing in life for most students right now. Many students are experiencing anxiety and/or stress from the aforementioned phenomena, and if one takes a look at recent posts on BC’s large online Reddit group, it is immediately evident that a disproportionate number of students are struggling.

Hence, the BC student body sincerely asks for the administration to help alleviate students’ mental health concerns this semester the student body asks that students be given the same options presented in the previous spring semester, P/F or withdrawal without a W. This is because most students are extremely protective of their Grade Point Average (GPA), since it can affect their eligibility to pursue certain graduate programs, scholarships, as well as jobs, whether full-time or an internship. 

Since the P/F option was offered in Spring 2019 when COVID-19 infection rates were in the thousands and had just begun to affect students’ mental health, it should be reasonable that such actions are repeated for Fall 2020, where national cases of viral infection have surpassed 8.3 million. Many universities across the U.S. including (but not limited to) UMass Amherst, UNC Chapel Hill, CU Boulder, Princeton, Stanford, UC Irvine, and the University of Southern California (USC), have in fact already implemented the P/F option for the fall. Many other universities are currently working towards adopting this policy change as well.

The student body believes the BC has a good history of supporting its students’ physical and mental wellbeing, as can be proved through frequent safety alerts, a nationally-acclaimed contact tracing system, as well as its decision to offer students the P/F option during Spring 2020 after the campus closed. The student body sincerely hopes that the administration continues to demonstrate such support for its community, by re-implementing the much-needed P/F option for the Fall 2020 semester.

As a student, what can I do to help?

Sign this petition! You do NOT need to create a change.org account; all you need is a Facebook or Gmail. The process takes less than a minute.
Share this petition through social media! Whether you share the link through Facebook or post a story on Instagram, spread the message that this is a chance for Illini student voices to be heard.
~This message was adopted from another schools petition for P/F, and this isn’t original work~