Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Virginia Community College System has announced that the grades for Spring 2020 semester will be evaluated on a Pass/Fail basis with no option for earning a traditional letter grade. Providing students with no option will put many of the Virginia Community College System's students at a disadvantage for the following reasons.

Many community college students are attending with hopes of later applying to graduate schools. Such graduate programs (including medical schools, dental schools, law schools, and many more) are becoming increasingly competitive every year. By not allowing students to have the choice in receiving a traditional letter grade, the value in their required pre-graduate school courses could potentially be lessened when compared to their four-year university counterparts.

Additionally, most four-year schools in Virginia, including the University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, and others, have made the Pass/Fail grading an option for its students. It is not forced upon them, and it should not be forced upon VCCS students.

Furthermore, there are likely many students in the VCCS that were looking forward to using this term's grades to bring up their GPAs. This option should not be taken away from them.

While the outbreak of COVID-19 is unprecedented territory and a Pass/Fail grading system will undoubtedly benefit many community college students, it should be optional for all VCCS students. While one can hope that all graduate schools will be more than understanding of this difficult time, it is not guaranteed that they will look over the essential coursework taken during this time.

This petition is to the Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System to simply make the Pass/Fail an option for its students. By making Pass/Fail grades an option, the VCCS will prevent its students from being put at an academic disadvantage when compared to four-year school students later down the road.

Personally, I am taking the second level of both introductory biology and chemistry, two quintessential pre-medical courses, at a Virginia community college. These classes are vastly important to my future, and I believe that I should not be forced into marking these essential classes with a Pass/Fail grade on my transcript.

I urge the VCCS to match the policies of Virginia's four-year universities in making this Pass/Fail grading policy an option.