At a emergency video conference meeting on Wednesday March 25th prompted by the COVID-19 crisis, the Faculty Senate passed two resolutions: a resolution endorsing Interim Provost Richard Starne’s policy for an optional pause on the tenure clock for tenure track faculty (introduced by Yancey Gulley, CEAP) and a resolution on expanded grade options for students in the Spring 2020 semester (introduced by Amy Murphy-Nugen, HHS).
The resolution titled Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Grading Guidelines for Spring 2020 called on the University to “expand the S/U option for undergraduate students so that undergraduate students can choose the S/U option for undergraduate courses in which they are registered in the Spring 2020 semester.” This is an option that is not generally available and when graded as such, the course will not be factored into GPA calculations, but will count toward their degree and number of hours. The Catalog currently states:
Satisfactory-Unsatisfactory. S/U grading is limited to courses in which standard or traditional grading is rendered difficult by the nature and purpose of the material. There is no limit on the credit hours a student may earn in S/U grades, but not all courses are approved for S/U grading. S/U grades may not be awarded in courses unless specified in the course descriptions in this catalog and in the master class schedule. S and U are the only grades that can be assigned in these courses. Neither S nor U is used in calculating the GPA, but an S allows hours of credit while a U does not.
The rationale for this policy is that the stress of a quick shift from in person to online instruction may have unintended consequences because the change of modality and content delivery might not be up to a faculty member’s own standards. There are also equity concerns for students: many report being in places without adequate broadband access to receive this content and to be adequately assessed in their learning.
This resolution also calls on faculty to report grades to the Registrar at the end of the Spring 2020 semester as they are currently set by the catalog. Students can then, “choose to petition to the Registrar that their courses be converted to a S/U grade for the Spring 2020 semester with the exception of Graduate or professional school courses, which can be taken as S/U only when deemed appropriate by the program or school Dean.”
Faculty and program directors will have to communicate with students about the consequences of petitioning S/U grades on gateway courses that require a certain letter grade before enrolling in upper division courses. Certain programs for licensure that have grade requirements would not be covered by this policy. The resolution adopts the grading criteria when requested by students to have the letter grades of A through C would be converted to a Satisfactory. Grades from C minus to F grades will be converted to a Unsatisfactory.
The resolution also called for incomplete grades from Fall 2019 to have their deadline to be cleared at the end of Spring 2020 to be extended until December 14, 2020, and to suspend the Chancellor’s and Dean’s Lists for Spring 2020.
The Provost Office and the Registrar will have discretion as to the dates at which students may petition to have their grades changed to S/U.
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