The year 2021 is coming to an end, which has been another year that has yet again affected the "normal" many students around the globe were accustomed to. The Fall 2021 semester has been a lot of students' first fully in-person semester after a year and a half of online and hybrid classes, testing, and separation from not only the people who we call our friends, but our home away from home. 

Adjusting to a change, even if it was what we perceived as “normal” for most of our lives, has felt like a sharp turn in a straight road. The objective of returning to full in-person classes is just as it was prior to the pandemic–in-person classes, testing, meetings, etc. However, as much as we would like to put the past year behind us and return to complete normalcy, it has been an even bigger burden on the lives of our student body. The pandemic is still affecting many of our lives in very deep ways, and to try and deny this fact is pure ignorance, and ignorance is dangerous. While trying to return to normal, we are still surrounded by the remnants of the pandemic, the continuation of the sacrifices we had to make, and the decline in mental health resultant of living in such an unsure time. Not only have the students at Florida Tech been experiencing a record decline in mental health, but they have also been unable to get the help they need from CAPS due to the overwhelming demand for therapy, empathy, and assistance. Florida Tech should, once again, consider allowing students to choose a Pass/Fail option for the Fall 2021 semester so students would have the option to maintain their academic integrity. This petition is not only about the burdensome anxiety caused by trying to hold up the lives rattled by the pandemic, but also by the severity of the overall decline in the mental well-being of the student body. 

In the consideration of ignorance, it would be purely ignorant and ill-natured of the Florida Tech administration to push past the fact that we lost one of our own to a brutal loss of life on our own campus. As students, we have been assured that we are to be coming back to a normal environment on our beautiful, welcoming campus. However, this semester, we have been faced with mortality and grief, and most of all, fear.

During this finals week, many students are pushing the boundaries of their mental health to study for exams while mourning the loss of a friend, a roommate, a classmate. Students are still trying to find ways to financially recover from the pandemic. Students are still supporting their families after the pandemic. What could have been an opportunity to return to our beautiful and welcoming campus has taken a turn for many as a traumatizing and disturbing semester. Moreover, Florida Tech did not offer study days to the student body, regardless of the professors' lack of accountability in assigning final projects, multiple homework assignments, and lab reports the week before finals. In particular, this left many students with only the weekend to study for a collection of extremely difficult final exams all recklessly scheduled on Monday and Tuesday of finals week. To add to this, many students' only academic resource, the library, closed early rather than being open for 24 hours as it was during previous final exam weeks.

This has caused students to push themselves to the extremes, not sleeping for days at a time in an attempt to maintain the grades they worked so hard for all semester. This has been a ridiculous failure on Florida Tech's part, as students with As in their classes are in jeopardy of losing multiple letter grades as a result of the mental and physical extremes students have been forced to push themselves to. The cancellation of Grad Bash, which many were looking forward to, has also put a further damper on the mental well being of the student body.

Our administration at Florida Tech has done a great job of keeping the student body informed, safe, and motivated during the entire pandemic. The work of faculty and administration has not gone unnoticed, however, allowing these impactful events to weigh on the student body and turning a blind eye will only create a domino effect of distress in more than just grades. A wound cannot heal if the scab keeps being picked off. Our students cannot excel back to what we were without accommodations, forgiveness, and proper acknowledgment for the care of our health and success. Allowing the pass/fail system will not deplete true coursework; we have been working in person all semester and receiving the grades which we deserve, however, it will open up an opportunity to heal the serious wounds which have affected us as of late, as well as throughout the past year.