Due to the spread of COVID-19, UW-Madison, as well as many other college campuses, around the country have decided to discontinue face-to-face instruction, proceeding with virtual instruction. While this decision is clearly a great move, it isn't the best move. Here's why:

Offering a pass/fail option for all classes will help alleviate some of the stress caused by the measures need to prevent the spread.  This is not an unheard of idea in face of a national crisis: pass/fail grades were utilized in response to a national emergency (i.e. Vietnam War Demonstrations in the 70's, which UW-Madisons had an outright role in). 

Students shouldn’t have to choose between ensuring my loved ones stay healthy or submitting an assignment on canvas. we shouldn’t have to delegate my mental focus between barely providing my rent is paid and reading chapter 10.

It’s going to be the students with ample resources that can maintain some semblance of a stable life throughout this. It’s going to be the students who did not lose their job because they didn’t have a job to lose. It’s going to be the students whose parents have email-friendly jobs. It’s going to be the students whose family members didn’t already have a tumultuous amount of healthcare bills, problems, and emotional distress shadowing their UW-experience.

UW is a very diverse community with students coming from all parts of the globe. International students and OOS students will have to stay up or wake up at strange times to "attend" virtual classes. This jeopardizes the mental health of a plethora of students. They still have to continue doing school work, "attending" class, and figuring out how to maintain a healthy life when their normal 8:00 am Stats lecture is at 2 am. 

Madison, something that I love about you: you give a feeling of home to a lot of vulnerable students. Can we focus on making this home a forgiving one? A loving one? One that places students’ well-being above rankings and scores, grades, and online forums?

Our students are driven and passionate but even under the right circumstances, the amount of work and engagement can be exhausting and detrimental to the general mental health of the student body.

I recognize that you want to keep some sense of "normalcy." And by doing this, you might even believe that you are helping. Bu nothing about this moment is normal, that's why an abnormal but reasonable reaction, such as pass fail in a global pandemic, is the correct move.

This isn’t about how we, as an institution, “rank-up” to other schools anymore. This is how we, as a community, place each other before ourselves. If we are going to stay together and strengthen our community, with each little person across the nation on a zoom call, this has to be about each and every individual that makes this institution & community, who we are. Other schools of high rankings are recognizing this, such as Georgetown, MIT, Cornell, many law schools — why can't we? If those schools are willing to stomach the burden of a decreased ranking, we should be able to as well. 

Who is within these numbers? Students: our minds and our ideas. Help us take care of and protect those.

Sincerely, 

The Students of UW-Madison