First off, perhaps most importantly is the issue of mental health. A lot of students most likely are feeling very stressed due to the quite invasive issue of the coronavirus pandemic, I hesitate to include any numbers, as they will likely be significantly different with the passage of time. Given the fact that Tech already has had quite a few issues regarding student mental health, I think it should be taken quite seriously. We must consider that in concert with the pre-existing problems, we are now in the midst of perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern times. Many businesses and restaurants are closing down and an economic recession is on our hands. We are living in unprecedented times. Students are not relaxed. Another thing worth mentioning is that students have had to make extremely hasty decisions regarding living spaces, travelling, food , water etc… in such short notice with the university closing 1.5 months earlier than expected, and with minimal warning. We have already been subjugated to a surplus of stress. It is also important to consider that we basically have not had a spring break (following CDC and state recommendations), in a semester that already has minimal breaks, this also compounds stress. Moreover, I think it is not an unreasonable request to ask you to think of the students and their health when making a decision with such important mental health ramifications.



The second point I think worth considering is what the syllabi say. I've looked over mine but none of them mention anything about school closing down, classes and lectures being moved online, and the whole testing structure being reformed, while given only a weeks notice. I think this is perhaps the most concrete of the points, as it really does open up the school to a lot of potential legal issues. I'm sure you've seen how much kids care about their grades, in this instance it really does present them an opportunity to take recourse should they so desire. Furthermore, if a syllabus is not held constant in this case, and the resolution harms the students in a negative way, then what's the point of actually having one in the first place? When we sign up for classes it is there to tell us the in no small part the level of difficulty of the course. It is not conducive to have courses change willy nilly, and especially in a way that harms the students. I think very few people would complain if such a change were implemented, while in its absence many would suffer.



This brings me to my third point. People at tech come from many different walks of life; that is one of the best parts of our school and community, our diversity. I would say many kids simply don't have proper environments to work in currently. Whether they have literally become homeless due to not being able to get home, and being kicked out of housing, due to a lack of proper notification of GaTech housing closing (Again major issue here), or maybe they have gotten home, but perhaps they have no wifi, or their parents are super loud, maybe the connection is slow, the list goes on and on, they simply can't do as well in their classes in an online format compared to regular face to face classes. I would say this harms those of less fortunate backgrounds more, which really shouldn't and is not what GaTech stands for. But when you consider this, it really is unfair to the students to not make this change.



Point number four is that we should look at all the other schools that have shifted to Pass/Fail grading. Many major and prestigious schools throughout the United States have already implemented the change, and it really would not look good for Tech to not do so as well. Some examples to name a few: MIT , Smith College, Middlebury College, Harvard College, Northwestern University and The City Universities of New York, and other Colleges have already transitioned to Pass/Fail Grading for the rest of the academic semester. Other colleges like Georgetown University and Carnegie Mellon University have now began allowing students to opt-in to pass/fail grading.



Point five is that not all online classes are created equal. Something like a lab science may be a whole different class online than in person, and if that version just happens to be orders of magnitude harder we ought not to get punished for it. As the Coronavirus isn't our fault, and we haven't really facilitated its spread. Moreover, this gets back to the issue of not signing up for something. There will be more volatility and variation in terms of course difficulty and grading of online classes as they are less refined and not originally intended to be taught and graded on in an online format. The grades from the online courses are indeed less indicative of a student's ability. I know of classes that literally cancelled the rest of the semester, while others are just going ahead like normal, this disparity really is significant.



It is also important to consider what is actually causing this seismic shift. We are in the midst of a pandemic. In all likelihood many tech students will contract the virus. Those students will indeed have trouble in their classes as a result. I just did the training you guys sent out, and it emphasized not to discriminate based off of a disability. Sickness is considered a disability. Not only would it be ethical to help the sick students in this case, it also has some legal grounding as well.



This final point is the one that stands out to me the most; essentially we're not getting what we bargained for. When I signed up to come to Tech I was signing up for a university. I was to be taught by professors (sometimes grad-students), and was able to go to lectures. Lecture s and office hours are not the same when done online.

As far as technology has come, they are still different. One's ability to learn in a classroom, versus from videos could be completely different. There have been countless research papers on the topic, which I do encourage you to read. The fact that the faculty and their teachings is important to Tech, I think highlights why the online classes are going to be quite different. This is Georgia Tech, not some online for profit school. If I wanted to learn from videos I would have just watched youtube instead of attending college. I realize the administration had no control over the virus, and I'm not saying we shouldn't have online classes. However, I do think it is not fair to grade us amidst a virus outbreak that nobody could have anticipated.