Chancellor Donde Plowman, 

The University of Tennessee has moved all classes online for the remainder of the semester. This is for the health and safety of all students, staff, and employees of the university. Since this is new, it could be stressful for many students and faculty since this is new to many of us. As a result, there is currently a petition going around for UT to switched to a pass/fail grading scale for all classes for Spring 2020. This seems like a good idea at first glance. However, if we look closer at it, it is not as good as it first seems for many reasons.

Firstly, many students this is their last semester at UT and they have been working very hard. Many students are looking forward to graduating with honors. Some, including myself, are so close to graduating with honors and have poured hours of our time at UT into studying, learning, and giving their all. With major milestone events such as commencement already removed or delayed due to coronavirus, this is the what we have to look forward to. By changing the grading scale to pass/fail, it is not respectful to all these students who have given their all to be the best they can and takes this out of the grasp of many students who have been working their whole academic career for this honor. 

Secondly, many students are counting on their grades this semester to help them get into graduate schools and to help them in their future academic and professional careers. As students, we want to give our all for Tennessee. By converting classes to a mandatory pass/fail, this discourages students from trying and shows them that in unprecedented times, we should not try as hard, we should be discouraged instead of continuing the legacy and greatness known from a Tennessee Volunteer. 

Thirdly, many academic scholarships require a certain GPA per semester and overall GPA. Taking this away will cause students stress, anxiety, financial burden. the coronavirus is already causing enough panic and financial stress that we as Volunteers should not be adding to. Vols help Vols always, especially in tough and unprecedented times such as these. 

Instead of converting all classes into a mandatory pass/fail, we propose instead an optional pass/fail policy in which students receive letter grades at the end of the semester and can then choose up to a week after the to keep that letter grade and apply it towards their GPA or instead switch classes to pass/fail and still count it towards credits for graduation.  By receiving C or higher would allow the student to pass the class while not worrying about a C dropping their GPA. This allows students to proceed with less stress about grades, financial burdens, their future academic and professional plans. Other schools, such as Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Mary Washington, and Georgetown University among others have switched to a similar system for this semester. 

The semester of Spring 2020 is highly unusual and unprecedented but now is not the time to give up. Now more than ever we need to come together as the Volunteer family, keep strong and bear the torch. Like a beacon shining bright, the stately walls of old UT, rise glorious to the sight. By giving students the option to take classes pass/fail and still count it towards credits for graduation or to take the letter grade for allows us to carry on the legacy of UT in these trying times.

Sincerely, 

Students of the University of Tennessee