The ongoing NTT faculty strike at Wellesley College has put a temporary halt to hundreds of classes since March 27, with no signs of a return to the classroom as of April 17. Amid this uncertainty, the College administration has been vague about how final grades for the affected classes will be determined, while making it clear that students will NOT be allowed to change the grading basis for these classes. According to the FAQ, students will be assigned a final grade (though by whom and how this will be determined is unspecified) based on the grade they earned up until the start of the strike on March 27.

We believe that this grading policy is fundamentally unfair. While we understand and empathize with the NTT faculty involved, we, as students, do not want our grades—critical to our future plans—caught in the middle of a dispute between the college and the union.

At the beginning of the semester, we chose our grading basis (either graded or credit/non-credit) based on the expectation that we would spend the full 14-week semester in the classroom. In a normal semester, a student’s grade may fluctuate due to performance across all components of the course, but these fluctuations typically occur over the entire semester, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation once all coursework is completed. The strike, however, abruptly shortened the semester to just 9 weeks, with over a third of the semester’s classroom time lost. A student’s performance in the final third of the semester could significantly impact their final grade, which would not be reflected in grades assigned before March 27.

The grading decisions we made earlier in the semester were based on the assumption that we would complete a full, 14-week semester. The College’s decision to assign final grades based solely on performance before the strike unfairly disregards the last third of the semester—a crucial period in which students may have seen significant changes in their academic performance. Importantly, the termination of these classes was not caused by students, nor was it their decision. Therefore, it is unjust for the College to arbitrarily decide that final grades will be assigned based solely on performance up until March 27.

Given these unusual and challenging circumstances, and in the interest of fairness, we strongly urge Wellesley College to permit students to selectively report grades for the strike-affected classes. We request that the individuals responsible for assigning final grades (whether the instructors or department chairs) report a letter grade internally to the College first. Then, students should have the option to decide whether they wish to have that letter grade included on their transcript or only the status of credit/non-credit. This request mirrors a grading policy that the College implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many classes were interrupted. While the causes of these two situations are different, the nature of the disruption is the same: students’ academic engagement has been interrupted by a force majeure event that is not their responsibility. Given this precedent, we hope the College will recognize the similarity between these two incidents and grant students the right to choose how their grades are reported.

Wellesley College has always prided itself on academic rigor and fairness. Grades are of great importance to students in our community because we are all hardworking and aspiring. Whether for graduate school or employment, we all have important future plans, and we should not be penalized by unfair evaluations of our academic performance due to circumstances beyond our control.

Please sign this petition to show your support and stand with us in urging Wellesley College to allow selective grade reporting for strike-affected classes.