Make pass/fail available for Mississippi State Students for the 2020-2021 academic year.
The Issue
The COVID-19 pandemic has made life extremely difficult for everyone. One group of people who have been disproportionately affected are college students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have moved to online classes which, while a great way to prevent the spread of the virus, do not provide the same quality of education as in person classes.
At Mississippi State University most classes are held online now. The issue with this is that prices for classes have stayed the same with some people actually paying more this semester due to the prices of access codes for fully online classes. At the same time, students are being held to the same academic standards as we would be during a normal school year. This is extremely unfair to students, especially when you consider that many people attending MSU have never dealt with fully online learning environments and are used to learning in person. Another thing to consider is students with learning disabilities such as ADHD who already have difficulty in traditional learning environments and are now expected to focus and learn in a non-traditional setting that is very much stacked against them. Another issue is that many students at MSU rely on scholarships to attend the university. Most scholarships require students to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher which, while being perfectly reasonable under normal circumstances, is much more difficult for students who are stuck taking online classes. The fact that Mississippi State gave us pass/fail in spring semester because of Covid-19 but not this semester while we are still dealing with pandemic based limitations is unfair.
Pass/fail grading, for anyone who doesn’t know, is an option to choose a credit/no credit grade while allowing you to keep the grades you want unmasked as letter grades. Pass fail can help protect your GPA, which is important in a situation like we are now. Mississippi state explained the whole system in this article: https://www.msstate.edu/passfail
It is my belief that Mississippi State University should extend its Pass/Fail options from the 2020 spring semester to students for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year or until the learning environment can be effectively improved.
The Issue
The COVID-19 pandemic has made life extremely difficult for everyone. One group of people who have been disproportionately affected are college students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have moved to online classes which, while a great way to prevent the spread of the virus, do not provide the same quality of education as in person classes.
At Mississippi State University most classes are held online now. The issue with this is that prices for classes have stayed the same with some people actually paying more this semester due to the prices of access codes for fully online classes. At the same time, students are being held to the same academic standards as we would be during a normal school year. This is extremely unfair to students, especially when you consider that many people attending MSU have never dealt with fully online learning environments and are used to learning in person. Another thing to consider is students with learning disabilities such as ADHD who already have difficulty in traditional learning environments and are now expected to focus and learn in a non-traditional setting that is very much stacked against them. Another issue is that many students at MSU rely on scholarships to attend the university. Most scholarships require students to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher which, while being perfectly reasonable under normal circumstances, is much more difficult for students who are stuck taking online classes. The fact that Mississippi State gave us pass/fail in spring semester because of Covid-19 but not this semester while we are still dealing with pandemic based limitations is unfair.
Pass/fail grading, for anyone who doesn’t know, is an option to choose a credit/no credit grade while allowing you to keep the grades you want unmasked as letter grades. Pass fail can help protect your GPA, which is important in a situation like we are now. Mississippi state explained the whole system in this article: https://www.msstate.edu/passfail
It is my belief that Mississippi State University should extend its Pass/Fail options from the 2020 spring semester to students for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year or until the learning environment can be effectively improved.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on September 30, 2020