On March 19th, 2020, Edgewood College declared that all classes for the remainder of the Spring Semester will be online. We are thankful that our college is putting the health and safety of their students, faculty and staff first. We recognize that it is extremely challenging to uproot an entire institution and we appreciate our instructors for taking the time to adjust their curriculums entirely online.

Although we recognize that the college has put our health first by making this decision, these changes are not ideal for many of our students and this must be addressed. These changes have caused the students of Edgewood College a great deal of emotional stress. 

This proposal is in line with actions taken by multiple institutions: The University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee petition being the catalyst for this petition, Harvard University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University- and back in 1969, the University of Wisconsin during the Vietnam War protests occurring on campus. Edgewood College must follow suit given the extraordinary circumstances. 

We propose that the students of Edgewood College deserve the option to transition from an A-F grading scale onto an emergency pass/fail grading system for all courses during this online semester (including major/minor classes) and that this system will still count towards our degree completions. 
The transition to online learning will be very difficult as our students adapt to a learning framework that many have not experienced in their lifetime. The instructors will also face a learning curve to teach in the platform. Similarly, a lot of the courses are not suited for the online format which adds to the difficulty in learning the material. As a result, technical difficulties and miscommunications are bound to occur during our semester online. We must think of the students' personal life and mental health during this pandemic and how it will affect their grades. This must be a priority of our institution. 

This pandemic comes with a handful of many other difficulties that students will have to endure: lack of internet, or a computer, health issues regarding themselves or a family member, lack of income- which could prevent the student from accessing internet as well, and in extreme cases, even preventing access to housing, and having to relocate completely or move back home. These, as well as the affects of self-isolation, can all negatively affect a student's performance academically. 

Again, we are thankful that our college has taken the steps to keep their students physically healthy, but we also must keep ourselves mentally healthy- especially in a times like this. We hope that our college will continue to put their students first and foremost.