On October 30th, 2020, due to immense student-led pressure, Northwestern University announced a temporary undergraduate grading option, the Credit/No Credit Grade Election, for the 2020-2021 academic school year. The university created this option in an attempt to meet the needs of a diverse body of students facing immense financial, social, political, health, communal, and familial struggles amidst the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, international social unrest, racial injustice, and/or students seeking quality letter grades for specific post-graduate opportunities. Despite astronomical COVID-19 daily cases both in the United States and internationally in part due to the Delta Variant; the potential of a rapid transition back to online learning from in-person classes due to current and future COVID-19 surges; ongoing social unrest and imperialistic violence internationally; daily racial injustice; and an influx of climate change-induced extreme weather events globally, Northwestern has yet to announce plans to reinstate this policy for the upcoming school year. 

We demand that Northwestern University reinstate the policy of optional Credit/No Credit Grade Election to prioritize equity for first-generation, low-income students; Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other students of color; international students, disabled students, and students with mental health challenges. A letter grading policy without Credit/No Credit Grade Election is inequitable and disadvantages many students in our community in the following ways: 

1. Low-Income, First-generation Students: Pell-Grant eligible students comprise approximately 20% of Northwestern’s undergraduate student body, and many more identify as low-income and/or first-generation college students. Many low-income students and their families continue to face grave financial hardships due to and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic collapses. Many students will be forced to work multiple jobs, take care of sick/elderly/young family members, and support their families financially while taking hybrid or in-person classes. Due to lack of access to healthcare and resources, low-income people domestically and internationally have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality. As a result, many low-income and/or first-generation college students are disproportionately grieving and facing graver mental health challenges. Likewise, low-income students continue to face barriers and a lack of technological and financial resources to ensure their successful transition (back) to an in-person or hybrid learning environment. 
2. Black, Brown, Indigenous & Students of Color: The COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to disproportionately affect Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color in the United States due to systemic racism, anti-Blackness, medical racism, environmental racism, economic inequity, and health inequities. An overwhelming amount of research throughout the pandemic has confirmed that “racial and ethnic minorities” in the United States have faced disproportionate infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates, as well as vaccine inequity and, most recently, a disproportionate impact of state and local vaccine mandates. Likewise, BIPOC students and their families/communities continue to face daily racial injustice and violence in the United States and globally from all institutions, including Northwestern University. BIPOC students are most likely to be personally affected by this pandemic and are disproportionately grieving, ensuring that a quality letter grade, P/NP policy would disproportionately disadvantage BIPOC students.
3. International students: International students comprise 9% of Northwestern’s study body and come from a wide variety of countries. The convergence of global health and COVID-19 vaccine inequity; economic collapse; socio-political unrest and violence in places such as Afghanistan, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Ethiopia, and Indonesia; and climate-change-induced extreme weather/natural disasters in Haiti, Algeria, Greece, Turkey, and many other places continues to create a distressing and violent reality for many international students, especially for those who are low-income. The pressures of a quality letter grade policy without the option of Credit/No Credit Grade Election will leave many of our international students unsupported amidst a terrifying reality of grief, familial and communal death/loss, financial hardship, climate anxiety, and health challenges/inequity.
4. Disabled Students: Many students at Northwestern have a wide range of mental and physical disabilities that impact(ed) their ability to learn before and during this ongoing pandemic. Disabled and/or immunocompromised students continue to be at a higher risk of contracting and facing hospitalization/severe illness from COVID-19, potentially without the ability to acquire the vaccine safely. Although the university is providing accommodations for students with disabilities, many students may still be forced to attend hybrid or in-person classes in order to make progress on their degrees. Likewise, students may face barriers to transitioning back to a hybrid or in-person learning environment, with the potential looming threat of having to rapidly transition back to online learning at any point due to surges of COVID-19. A quality letter grade policy places an undue burden and amount of stress on students with a wide range of disabilities potentially facing numerous barriers and hardships from the ongoing pandemic.
5. Students with Mental Health Challenges: The challenges and inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as systemic racism and violence, have exacerbated many students’ existing mental health challenges and illnesses. Likewise, many students are facing new mental health challenges and illnesses while struggling to find resources and support. Despite student protests for years after a string of tragic suicides at Northwestern due to academic, financial, and social stressors, the university continues to offer woefully inadequate and understaffed mental health resources at CAPS.  Members of our community are left unsupported during such a tumultuous, violent, and deadly time in our lives, as CAPS is notorious for long wait times, collaboration with deadly carceral institutions via “wellness check-ins,” understaffing, a non-diverse staff, sexism, racism, and anti-Blackness. Forcing students facing a wide range of mental health challenges to return to campus for hybrid/in-person learning without adequate, culturally affirming mental health resources is reprehensible, violent, and unacceptable. 

Reinstating a Credit/No Credit Grade Election policy is only a small, mandatory step in creating an equitable learning environment. Many students, especially those who are BIPOC, low-income/first-gen, international, disabled, and facing mental health challenges have expressed that the optional Credit/No Credit Grade Election system provided them with some sense of relief and solace amidst overwhelming challenges. We are grieving an unimaginable amount for diverse reasons, personally and collectively. The university’s race to “normalcy” is inequitable, violent, racist, classist, and will result in disastrous effects on students’ health and well-being.

We have the power as a community to demand better from a university that claims to be committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but continues to inflict violence upon us daily through its operations and policies. Please join us to demand that Northwestern Reinstates the Credit/No Credit Grade Election policy for the 2021-2022 Academic Year. 

Please reach out directly to these key stakeholders to demand they reinstate the optional Credit/No Credit Grade Election Policy:

Morton O. Schapiro, President: nu-president@northwestern.edu

Kathleen Hagerty, Provost: nuprovost@northwestern.edu

Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, VP of Student Affairs: jp-kirchmeier@northwestern.edu 

David Figlio, Dean of SESP: figlio@northwestern.edu 

E. Patrick Johnson, Dean of the School of Com: dean-epj@northwestern.edu 

Toni-Marie Montgomery, Dean of the Bienen: t-montgomery@northwestern.edu 

Julio Ottino, Dean of the McCormick: jm-ottino@northwestern.edu 

Adrian WB Randolph, Dean of Weinberg: weinberg-dean@northwestern.edu 

Charles Whitaker, Dean of Medill: medill.dean.office@northwestern.edu
 

Last Edited: 8/17/21