SU Calls for a Pass/Fail Option this Semester

By: Malak El-Khatib
@MalakElKhatibb

The Student Union (SU) has petitioned senior administration to introduce a pass/fail option as an alternative grading scheme for the spring 2020 semester in light of the shift to online instruction and student concern about how GPAs might be affected.

“This [the proposal] entails the different solutions that the student body proposed and it consists of pass/fail options, alternative assessment tools, waiving unnecessary fees and providing more interactive solutions for classes,” SU President Mohamed El Fiky said.

At its heart, students will be given the option of choosing whether to receive the standard letter grades or have the pass/fail option applied to the assessment of their work this semester.

He said he did not present the proposal to the administration until he thoroughly researched how other reputable universities in the United Kingdom and the United States modified their grading systems to deal with social distancing following the COVID-19 pandemic.

El Fiky wanted to ensure he had a strong argument.

According to CNN, Smith College, Middlebury College, Grinnell College, Northwestern University and The City Universities of New York have all shifted to a purely pass/fail basis.

“I would expect that the university should listen carefully to its main stakeholders: the students. They should provide the solutions that will accommodate all student concerns,” El Fiky said.

Vice-President for Student Life Deena Boraie said that a modified grading system will give students a chance to maintain their GPAs in this current time especially after being introduced to a new learning system.

“I am sure that the university will take their students’ mental health into consideration,” Boraei said.

Boraie believes that the current circumstances might offer the student body an opportunity by exposing them to different learning techniques that no one would have otherwise thought of implementing when the university was operating normally.

She mentioned that having the pass/fail grading option is going to be fair for all students since it is going to be optional, and not mandatory.

However, and despite the SU’s support for a modified grading system, some students believe this to be an inequitable approach.

Malak Ashraf, an undeclared sophomore, feels that the option of a pass-or-fail semester is unfair to her since she hasn’t declared yet and therefore needs letter grades in order to boost her GPA for her intended major.

“Other students are going to have the privilege of choice,” Ashraf said.

However, she supports the other items in the SU proposal because she feels online instruction has “doubled” her coursework and more faculty supervision of the process is needed.

Communication and Media Arts junior Alaa Matar says the online teaching workload has become “unbearable” but endorses the pass/fail option as an ideal solution.

“I am with the petition as the whole process of online learning is new and people can’t cope with it immediately. Not to mention the ongoing stress in our current daily lives due to the COVID-19,” Mattar said.