Students will have a chance to change the grades to S/U for Fall 2020. Photo courtesy of WCU.
WCU students will have an option to change the grades from their letter grade to S/U (Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory) the same way as in spring 2020.
The Student Government Association of Western Carolina University approved a resolution on Nov. 3 and Faculty senate supported it and passed their own on the last week of classes, Nov. 18. The resolution will allow students the same option for S/U grading that they were given in the Spring 2020 semester amidst the global outbreak of COVID-19. See the resolution.
“As we saw that a student-led petition arose, a couple of our own Senators had begun developing an SGA resolution to support the S/U option for this semester. As other universities in the UNC system began offering S/U, and the student-led petition gathered over 2,500 signatures, we knew that this was a student body-wide concern that we needed to voice,” Vice president of SGA, Aaron Speyer said in an email.
SGA resolution was first presented to the Faculty senate by SGA President Dawson Spencer as part of his regular update at the Nov. 11 meeting of the Senate, which tabled following lengthy discussion. The Faculty Senate resumed discussion at an overflow meeting one week later, finally approving a resolution in support of the grading system change.
Upon the passing of the S/U resolution, the Faculty Senate Chair Dr. Kadie Otto published an open letter online expressing her disappointment with how the resolution process was handled.
“Confident that there was not overwhelming support from the general Faculty nor the Faculty Senate Planning Team, I told SGA I would bring the matter before the full Senate. I was wholly confident that the Senate would, also, not support S/U. After I presented the points above, the Senate voted to consider S/U (17-9-3).”
Otto “stressed” to SGA that the resolution needed to be “well thought out” and that it needed to “reflect recognizable modifications from the Spring 2020 resolution.” Otto continued in the letter explaining that a senator “posted a resolution into the chat box” and that resolution said, “just use the old resolution from Spring 2020 and change the dates to Fall 2020.”
Under the changes extended for fall 2020, faculty will provide traditional letter grades as usual at the end of the semester. Students may accept their letter grade for a course or may request grades of satisfactory or unsatisfactory. A grade of satisfactory will be awarded, if requested, for any letter grade from A to C, and a grade of unsatisfactory will be awarded for any letter grade from C-minus to F. As in spring, students will request the change through the Registrar by completing the grade change form.
Courses that are graded satisfactory or unsatisfactory will not be factored into a student’s GPA, but will count toward completion of the degree and required number of hours.
If a student opts to go for S/U grade they will not be eligible for the Chancellor’s and Dean’s List. In an email message from the Provost, on Dec. 2, the policy was clarified that “students can still earn Chancellor’s and Dean’s List commendations for Fall 2020, but only if they retain traditional A-F grading for all courses. Other requirements remain in effect: to achieve Chancellor’s List, students must earn a 3.8 GPA while completing a minimum of 12 credit hours. For Dean’s List, a 3.5 GPA must be earned while completing a minimum of 12 credit hours.”
Students will have the option to petition the Registrar’s Office to shift any or all of their courses to satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading by completing a grade change form that will be posted online (registrar.wcu.edu).
Speyer acknowledged the fact that there were some faculty members who may not have been on board with giving students this option and explained why that may have been the case.
“We know that some faculty were for the resolution, while others were against it. It was important, however, to understand the reasoning behind both sides as we proceeded. Some feel that because students knew going into the Fall 2020 semester how the course modality would be due to the current circumstances surrounding COVID-19, the option for S/U should not be offered. However, we also needed to voice the difficulties within this semester that students were not and could not be properly equipped for, such as the difficulties that students and professors experienced with the combination of online/hybrid formats for classes.”
SGA Chief Judicial Justice, Kaitlyn Alston was happy with SGA performance in the process.
“I believe the professionalism of the students who represented SGA and the student body’s feedback led to the decision of implementing S/U. I was very proud to see how the hard work of SGA paid off in such a quick amount of time. It really proves that our voices do matter to the university,” Alston explained in a phone call.
When asked about the why Faculty at WCU may have been in favor of the resolution or against, Speyer wrote, “…such difficulties that students and professors experienced with the combination of online/hybrid formats for classes. These concerns were made even more prevalent as we learned both in our survey and in discussion with members of administration that students reported significant mental difficulties, experiencing anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression, and a declining motivation in their coursework.”
