The Office of the Provost has announced that classes for the current semester (Spring 2020) at the Illinois Institute of Technology will now be administering Pass-Fail grading. The only exceptions available are for graduating seniors or students whose academic standing is in question. The absence of letter grades for this semester will greatly impact students applying for graduate and professional degree programs this application cycle. Students who were high-achieving for the portion of the semester that has already been completed are now losing their ability to show grade-improvement as their success will not be reflected in their transcripts (and, frankly, many students would have no need to return to coursework this semester if they will already receive a "Pass" grade due to academic excellence in midterm examinations).

Making Pass-Fail grading optional for students allows flexibility for those who are genuinely unable to contribute time to their academics during this national health crisis, while keeping consideration for those who are pursuing graduate and professional degree programs to translate their completed course-work into their GPAs with the letter grades they achieve. Graduate and professional degree programs often focus on the three semesters prior to application, thus the lack of letter grades for this semester will rob many students of their final opportunity to showcase academic prowess.

Why this decision impacts all students:

It has been stated by many that this decision could be upsetting students due to an “inability to raise their GPA in other semesters.” However, that statement would be grossly inaccurate, as it fails to recognize how this decision impacts ALL IIT students. The following reasons depict why:

(1) IIT students will be placed on an uneven playing field against the rest of the country.

Since this decision has not been made nationwide, statewide, or even citywide, students will graduate from IIT with a transcript that does not compare to those of students from any other college or university. Thus, this decision impacts not only a students’ attempts to raise their GPA, but what a semester of Pass-Fail grading will do to students’ career/graduate school prospects.

(2) IIT is aware of the negative consequences this decision has for students.

How do we know? The only bolded wording of the email announcement is as follows: "Graduating seniors only may petition for letter grades to be entered." Those graduating in May of 2020 would not have been given the option to petition to have letter grades on their transcript if this Pass-Fail decision would not seriously affect their future opportunities and career prospects. This, furthermore, is a dismissal of those whom the decision will affect in the future, and a recognition of only those whom the decision will affect in the upcoming months, a short-sighted perspective.

(3) Other colleges and universities that have made similar decisions have made the Pass-Fail grading optional to ALL students, not exclusively for those graduating this semester.

Universities including, but not limited to, Carnegie Mellon University and Georgetown University have made their Pass-Fail grading optional for ALL students. At the attached link, more universities considering such amendments are listed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/19/colleges-go-passfail-address-coronavirus