Due to the spread of COVID-19, the University of New Hampshire campus, as well as many other college campuses and educational institutions around the country, have decided to discontinue face-to-face instruction and proceed with virtual instruction. While this decision greatly serves the population and protects everyone from potential exposure to illness and contaminants, it puts the students of UNH at an educational disadvantage for a variety of reasons.

First, although systems like ZOOM learning are alternative resources, it does not help students with certain learning difficulties and makes classes with labs and face to face requirements much more difficult for the teachers and students. 

Secondly, keeping in mind that we are all diverse and come from many different parts of the world, making these classes online poses a huge problem for international students and students that may not have access to internet or a healthy environment to excel. 

In addition to this, many seniors have capstones or internships that have now been made difficult due to the cancelation of in person classes. As unexpected and foreign this process seems, as a student and member of our senior class of 2020 I am greatly concerned for our student body and believe that our ability to adapt and be successful should be supported by our faculty.

With this in mind, as well as the ever changing status of the pandemic, and it’s affect on your students and classmates, sign this petition to make classes have a PASS/FAIL option. Students need to be able to adjust to this new system without having a great impact on their GPA and stress levels while trying to navigate through these difficult times.