March 15, 2020

RE: Changes to the Winter 2020 Session for Arts & Science Undergraduate Students

Dear Dean Melanie Woodin,

We hope you are doing well during this difficult time. ASSU would first like to sincerely thank you for your dedicated leadership and consistent communication with students, and we appreciate the steps that have been taken thus far to support the students, faculty, and staff at our Faculty.

In light of the cancellation of in-person exams and the extension of the CR/NCR and drop deadline, we have heard the overwhelming concerns of students who are uncertain or worried about their outstanding assessments and final grades. We recognize that there are various options instructors may be considering during this time, and below, we have listed the common concerns students have raised to us regarding these options (as well as our own thoughts), and a set of recommendations supported by ASSU and a majority of our student body.

1) Re-weighting the marking scheme

We recognize that this is a possibility for a number of courses (especially those that cannot move to online assessments, take home tests, etc.). Students are particularly concerned that re-weighting may put them at a disadvantage in courses they were doing well in. We have heard from students who are concerned with the fairness of re-weighting, with one issue being the unanticipated increased importance of minimally graded assignments (i.e. re-weighting a 10% assignment to now be worth 20%). In addition, students are concerned about losing the opportunity to improve their performance in a course through future assignments, and we find this to be an unfair disadvantage.

2) Changing final exams to final papers or “take-home exams”

We have heard of many courses in the humanities and social sciences that have proposed this as an option already. There are three primary issues that students have raised to us in response: (1) a sudden increase in academic workload with each of these final papers now being worth upmost to 40%, (2) the expectation and anxiety that these heavily weighted assessments will be graded more stringently, and (3) the inability of students to adequately seek the assistance of their instructors.

On the first point, students may have purposefully enrolled in courses with final exams for multiple reasons, and replacing these final exams with final papers or take-home exams is unfair. Commonly, students may decide to enroll in courses with final exams instead of papers as they may feel more comfortable in test settings, and courses with final exams may lighten a semester’s course load. Accordingly, replacing final exams with final papers may result in students who believe they will not do as well in these courses, or are unable to simply cope with the immense amount of assessments and the increased pressures of the weighting (not to mention that many students will now have to follow this same scheme for more than one course, resulting in more than one such assignment due within a similar timeframe).

On the second point with respect to these assessments now being graded harder, students have expressed to us that their instructors have told them that they now expect more from their papers seeing as how they have the ability to “take them home”, have more time, and can use open-book sources. These expectations, coupled with the fact that these assessments are worth way more than any regularly assigned paper, have led students feeling as though they are more likely to do poorly in their courses than not.

On the final point with respect to an inability to adequately communicate with our instructors, students are for the most part left in the dark on what is expected of them with these assignments. In-person office hours & meetings are off the table, and email communication continues to be slow (due to many students emailing their instructors and TAs at the same time). With papers now worth a majority of course grades, students should have the opportunity to seek the guidance of their instructors, which unfortunately, is waning during this period in time.

3) Online Examinations

Many instructors in our Faculty rely on final examinations to test students on course material. As we have been told by students, some instructors have communicated to them that their exams will now take place online. We recognize that this is a positive solution for many courses, particularly those that rely on multiple-choice testing formats. However, we would like to note that similar to take-home exams, students are concerned that online examinations may be written to be more stringent and difficult given their at-home environment. In addition, students are also unsure how they will practically handle this shift (i.e. writing timed essays/long responses, finding quiet spaces to complete these assessments, etc.). Again, although this may work best with specific courses, for others, the practicality is simply low.

ASSU’s main concern at the moment is the mental health and well-being of our students. At a time when anxieties and fears are already at an unusual high, the above proposals that have already been communicated to students by their instructors have only contributed to these heightened emotions. We understand that this is a very difficult and complex situation for you and the Faculty to navigate, but we as students are also scared, worried, and unsure of what to expect next. Students are concerned about their final grades and increasing course loads, and we want to ensure that the Faculty’s response does its best to ease these fears.

Seeing as how students are not comfortable with the aforementioned solutions, we have included a set of recommendations below which continues to be suggested by our students (via messages, emails, and a petition now circulating), and has also been carefully assessed and agreed upon by us as an Executive.

Recommendations:

Our recommendations are closely aligned with the Faculty’s response during the 2015 CUPE 3902 strike which similarly prevented the continuation of in-person exams. We welcome the extension of the CR/NCR and drop deadlines to after final grades have been released and that students are now able to CR/NCR an unlimited number of courses. These changes are greatly appreciated, but we wish to see more done.

This solution does not address the overwhelming concerns of students who are worried with how this situation will affect performance in their program requirements. Most (if not all) the courses taken within an academic year are courses which count towards program requirements; this situation has affected the outcome of courses which students depend on to either: (1) fulfill degree requirements, or (2) gain acceptance into their desired POSt. The inability to CR/NCR program requirements will ultimately harm students’ overall performance and continue to accelerate anxieties.

We find it upsetting that the intention behind granting students the ability to CR/NCR an unlimited number of courses stems from the knowledge that grades may be adversely affected during this difficult time, and yet, this pressure-valve has not been extended to program requirement courses which are often the most stressful and where outcomes matter the most. In turn, students will continue to feel unsupported. Their hard work, dedication, and pressures to succeed during this year will culminate into an unknown and feared outcome without the option to CR/NCR their program requirements.

In keeping with the same protocol as the 2015 response, we recommend that the Faculty:

1) Allow students the option to CR/NCR any number of courses for this academic year,

including program requirements

2) Include a notation on each transcript explaining the circumstances which have led

to the increased use of CR/NCR

In addition to these recommendations, we also ask that the Faculty look into ways to ease the fears of students who intend to apply to graduate schools or programs which heavily factor grades. This could include releasing a public statement, working with the professional faculties at our University to understand the implications of such a scenario, initiating conversations with faculties from other institutions, and ensuring that the notation included on each transcript is thorough and informative.

We wish to thank you again for the continued steps the Faculty has taken in ensuring students are well accommodated during this difficult time. We urge you to consider these recommendations as students await the Faculty’s ongoing decisions. In addition, we will continue to inform you of the thoughts and concerns of our students as the situation progresses in hopes of coming to a thoughtful, compassionate, and agreeable decision. Please also know that we hope to support you and the Faculty in any way we can.

Yours sincerely, The ASSU Executive

C.C: ASSU Constituents