Hello, we are writing this petition on behalf of our Warrior community. My name is Nicholas Kendall and I'm a sophomore at Winona State University. I am a Theatre Major with a minor in Arts Administration. My name is Daniel Cocchiarella, I'm a transfer student and Junior at Winona State University. I am majoring in Geology and we are writing this petition to help the Warrior community through these unprecedented times. As a student body, we believe the university should change all grading policies to pass/fail credit for the remainder of the semester. During these troubling times, the WSU community needs to work together to discuss how to deal with issues and how we can make things less stressful for the students and faculty of Winona State. Students have been left out of this conversation largely. Everyone is experiencing this epidemic differently and the university is assuming every student will have the resources to succeed in online classes like they could have if classes had continued in their usual delivery method.

Our classes have been changed to online courses because of the detrimental coronavirus outbreak. We understand the importance of flattening the curve and that this decision was not made lightly. Yet, the student body didn't sign up for classes online and the faculty did not intend to teach online. We have a friend in online classes. Anecdotally, one claimed her semester in online classes “gave her the worst GPA she’s had in her career”. Another is dealing with time management issues “I could not comprehend how long it was going to take, now I’m behind because I have everything due tomorrow”. Last, one claimed before this pandemic “Online classes were the worst, I’ll never do that to myself again”. Many students have and will thrive in an online college, but most chose an in-person university for personal reasons such as increasing the likelihood of success in their studies. Many students who tried to sign up for online classes were rejected because they were “full”. Now there is no concept of a full online class, as everyone is being forced to participate in makeshift, virtual versions of classes designed to be taught by professionals, who for the most part, have no experience teaching online classes. WSU students paid a lot of money for in-person instruction, labs, and personalized education in an environment designed to optimize for our success. Students in majors that required extensive hands-on practice aren't available to learn those subjects as well. Many specific concepts vital to our majors cannot be taught online. Acting classes for theater majors, lab classes for science majors, clinical's for health majors, and hands-on instruction for education majors are impossible now. The WSU community will be unable to receive the hands-on experience they paid to receive in their respected fields, yet grades will still be presented as if they had.

In conclusion, the student body believes Winona State should change the grading policy for the remainder of the 2020 spring semester on a pass/ fail basis. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, UW Madison, and countless others have already switched their grading in this uncertain time. Living situations, financial security, and student’s health currently are much more important to us than getting an A in calculus. The only letters that matter right now are C-O-V-I-D. The ability of students to perform academically pre-corona is in no way comparable to a student’s ability to perform currently and should not be treated as such. We care about our GPAs; we need them to be competitive in the workforce after graduation. The university should not expect students to perform at the same standards, with the same letter grading scale as normal classes. Attached is a list of students who have signed our petition; please understand these students care about their academics and do not want their hard-earned GPA’s impacted by COVID.