Students at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia University are demanding that everyone get “an A” or at least a “universal pass” for their Spring semester courses.
The demands among students arrive on the heels of the Ivy League schools adopting lenient grading policies in response to the Chinese virus pandemic. In fact, all eight of America’s prestigious Ivy League schools have gone lax with regards to grading policies this semester.
Now, a petition circulating at Columbia University notes that “President Bollinger announced that all classes will now be graded on a Pass/Fail only basis,” adding that “the University should take this policy a step further by implementing an ‘All-A’ policy.”
The students argue that an “All A” grading policy is necessary “given that the intent of the Pass/Fail policy is to serve as an equalizing force” during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic .
“Although we acknowledge and praise the intent behind the University’s decision to implement mandatory Pass/Fail, we do not believe that this policy is as equitable, forward-thinking, or all-encompassing as an ‘All-A’ solution,” argue the students in their petition.
“If President Bollinger and the Columbia administration are truly committed to instituting an equalizing policy, the new Pass/Fail policy falls short,” the students add. “We, the undersigned students, implore you to hear the voices of your students to protect the most vulnerable of us, and adopt an ‘All-A’ policy.”
The petition at Columbia University has garnered more than 1,500 signatures at the time of publishing.
Meanwhile, at Harvard, students have also been calling on the university to implement a similar “universal pass” grading policy, in which all students will be recorded as having passed their courses for the spring semester, according to a report by the Harvard Crimson.
The report added that students at Yale University started the trend, calling on a “No Fail Yale” grading policy.
“Given the variety of conditions that students are facing right now at home — whether that’s limited internet access, or having to find a way to make money for the families, or the stress that having another individual in the household brings — it is my belief, and I think the belief in a lot of people in first-gen community, that there should be a different kind of grading accommodation for students during the semester,” said Harvard student Benjamin I. Sorkin to the Harvard Crimson.
Other students have suggested a second grading model, known as the “Double-A” system, in which students receive either an A or an A-minus for their spring semester courses.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.