When everything was abruptly shut down in March, the University informed its students of the Z grade pass/fail option for Spring 2020. The Universities website states "The COVID-19 pandemic has required fundamental shifts to our classroom procedures in order to keep our community safe. To ensure that our students do not lose the academic progress that they have made this semester, we have shifted our courses online and to alternative formats.....Generally speaking, a grade of Z indicates that the student passed the course with a C or better. A grade of P also indicates that the student passed the course, but with a C- or less.

Z and P grades EARN course credit.
Z and P grades ARE NOT COUNTED in the overall GPA calculation.
Z and P grades ARE NOT USED in determining whether a student qualifies to graduate with academic honors.
Z grades DO SATISFY the requirement of "C or better" for earning academic credit.
Z grades DO NOT SATISFY program and/or prerequisite requirements of grades of "B− or better" or "B or better" (applies only to specific published graduate program/prerequisite requirements).
P grades DO NOT SATISFY the requirement for "C or better" for program progression or earning graduate academic credit."

This process was also carried over into May-session, full Summer, first and second Summer, and August intersession. However, almost a month into the semester, two weeks from the drop date deadline,10 weeks of the semester left, and half of the campus partially or fully online the University has not even mentioned a plan for Fall 2020. With several transfer students arriving on scholarship time-based awards, graduate students finishing their last year, and many undergraduates trying to maintain an anticipated graduation date, taking off a semester is not an option. As many have mentioned before, none of us asked for this, so we should all support one another to make these transitions a bit better. Please join me in signing this petition requesting the attention of our Chancellor Glenn Boyce to implement a Z/P grade option to the IHL board to be considered and approved.