Petition to Implement an Optional Pass/Fail Grading System at LSU due to COVID-19 — Please Sign Using LSU.edu Email

 

         On March 12, LSU decided to move all classes online for the remainder of the Spring semester and cancel classes for the week of March 16 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.  Despite the usefulness of these measures in preventing the spread of disease, LSU’s response to COVID-19 presents a clear impediment to student learning. To fairly grade students and account for the altered learning experience, the LSU student body petitions the LSU Office of the President and Office of Academic Affairs to implement an optional pass/fail grading system at LSU for the 2020 Spring semester.

            LSU withheld in-class and online instruction for two consecutive weeks beginning March 16.  During this two-week hiatus from school, LSU students faced great uncertainties including unemployment and displacement from living spaces on campus due to COVID-19. Students returning after this hectic time period will have tests and excessive amounts of homework in an unfamiliar online setting, having received no class instruction for two consecutive weeks prior.  LSU’s current grading system cannot accurately judge a student’s knowledge of a subject given this abrupt change to an online setting and an overload of life-altering obstacles caused by COVID-19.

            Additionally, face-to-face learning is an indispensable facet of education.  The ability to ask questions mid-instruction and receive one-on-one teaching during office hours is an irreplaceable tool for student learning and development. To deny this fact would be to deny the need for over 1 billion dollars of buildings and infrastructure on LSU’s campus. There is an innate quality to the human brain that catalyzes learning in the physical presence of peers and professors. Withholding this treasure of the human mind is to withhold the essence of education itself.

            It is difficult to assess a student’s understanding of a subject with the precision of the current grading scale when so many obstacles are placed, and so many tools are withheld, on the path to educational success. Applying the precise grading methodology used for in-person instruction in a dramatically different learning environment causes undue stress and is unfair given the unprecedented educational circumstances. Therefore, we, members of the LSU student body, do sign below to petition the LSU Office of the President and Office of Academic Affairs to implement an optional Pass/Fail grading system for the remainder of the 2020 Spring semester.

 

Ben Baumgardner—TKE President   ·  William Jewell—Student Body President · Taylor Scott—Student Body Vice President  ·  Stone Cox—Incoming Student Body President  ·  Hannah Barrios—Incoming Student Body Vice President

 

An incomplete list of 4-year universities that have implemented pass/fail grading due to COVID-19:

 

·      Tulane University

·      University of Alabama

·      Florida State University

·      Texas A&M University

·      Auburn University

·      University of Tennessee

·      Baylor University

·      Pennsylvania University (Wharton)

·      University of Virginia

·      University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)

·      University of California (Berkley)

·      University of Massachusetts (Amherst)

·      University of Central Florida

·      Elon University

·      University of South Florida

·      Columbia University

·      University of Arizona

 

Possible Guidelines for Implementing an optional pass/fail grading system, adopted from Tulane University:

• Students will have access to a new grading scheme P (Pass) / MP (Minimal Pass) / U (Unsatisfactory), with pass indicating a letter grade C- or above, MP a letter grade of D- to D+ and U a grade of F.
• Students can still take any or all of their classes for a traditional letter grade.
• Students can take as many of their current classes P/MP/U as they like, including courses in their major or minor and courses that meet their core requirements.
• Academic credit will be offered for grades of P or MP, but none of these grades, whether P, MP or U, will be entered into the student's GPA.
• If any course must be completed with a grade of C- or better to satisfy a prerequisite or graduation requirement, then in this scheme it must be completed with a grade of P.
• The deadline for selecting your grading scheme for each course will be May 11 for graduating students and May 21 for all other undergraduates, after you will have received your final grades for the semester.