Pass/No Credit Grades – Spring 2020
Pass (P)/No Credit (NC) Grade Reporting Policy – Spring Semester 2020
The public health emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to the educational environment for both students and faculty at the University during the Spring 2020 semester. In some cases, the tools and methods for evaluating student learning that were available or that appeared most appropriate at the beginning of the semester were no longer available to the faculty members, or in some cases no longer seemed appropriate, for the second half of the semester, when all students participated in online distance learning. In addition, due to significant alterations to the manner in which classes were taught and course content delivered in this distance learning environment, the University understood that the grading mechanisms utilized by faculty would, for many students, no longer measure or reflect their knowledge of or familiarity with course content as much as the level of disruption they experienced. Accordingly, the University provided students a Pass/No-Credit (“P/NC”) grading option for Spring 2020 that was intended to relieve student anxiety and promote persistence in courses that the student might otherwise drop.
Undergraduate students are permitted to view their standard letter course grades of A through F on May 12, 2020, and they have from then through May 29, 2020 to request that any Spring 2020 course grade from A through F be switched to P/NC grades, with the exception of courses that concluded prior to March 13, 2020. After May 29, 2020, any elections to switch standard letter course grades to P/NC grades will become final.
Comparable P/NC provisions have also been adopted for courses taken in Graduate and Professional programs. Thus, after May 29, the University will no longer publish, nor will it disclose to a person or entity outside the University, the actual letter grades of A through F that underlie and were superseded by the P/NC grade received by students in undergraduate, graduate, or professional coursework during Spring Semester 2020.
When the University responds to a request from a person or entity outside the University for a student’s actual letter grade of A through F in a Spring 2020 course for which the student received a P/NC grade, the response will include a statement explaining this P/NC Grade Reporting Policy.