On March 12, 2020, in the face of growing concerns around COVID-19, the Utah System of Higher Education required Southern Utah University to make the transition to remote instruction, forgoing all in-person classes, assessments, and activities. As a whole, the student body at SUU understands the severity of the situation and the necessity for this swift action; we appreciate all the effort that went into making this decision and the subsequent effort to make the transition to remote learning as smooth as possible.

However, with all the effort put into making the transition as flawless as possible, there are still a multitude of concerns to be alleviated within our community, some of which can be addressed by the administration here at SUU. Some of these problems include:

1. Inability to attend class. Students of varying financial status may lack access to high-speed internet, adversely impacting their ability to attend classes or finish coursework in a timely manner. Time zone difference will affect a student's ability to operate and/or even attend class. Inconvenient timing of classes will undoubtedly affect their academic performance.

2. Physical Health. If a family member becomes sick, how will a student focus on their studies? If a student gets sick? We should be prioritizing the health and status of our community over grades at this moment.

3. Mental and financial health. This pandemic is having an overall negative effect on the esteem and mental health of our student body. Students residing in California or New York are currently witnessing their families undergo extreme economic instability which greatly impacts students' ability to focus, mental health, and motivation to complete classwork. Many other states will likely be forced to follow with strict quarantine bans. With many businesses closing down (bars and restaurants), student-workers are not making money; what if this was a source of income that they or their family needed desperately?

4. Abnormal Instruction. Online instruction is incomparable to the experience and learning that one may have in the class and during in-person lectures; although many students may transition seamlessly to learning online, there will be an indisputable part of our student body that will face difficulties in focusing and/or truly understanding class material. Online instruction inherently heightens students' individual responsibility to learn advanced material, meant to be learned with step by step guidance from professors (i.e. Advanced Professional Financial Accounting).

5. Post-semester consequences. Poor grades received from this tumultuous semester could jeopardize students' placement into graduate programs, their ability to graduate with honors, and affect their scholarship eligibility.



We are requesting a shift in the university grading policy to ease some of these concerns.

Other universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northwestern University, and even Brigham Young University have announced that they would be changing their grading policy to pass/fail as a result of COVID-19 being a significant disruption.

We believe that SUU is an institution that is not only accepting and understanding of students' needs, but also willing to accomodate them if need be. With that being said, we do not recommend a mandatory transition to pass/fail as many students would prefer to have letter grades. Students may need these grades for GPA reasons (continued education, graduation requirements, or for personal academic goals). Rather, an optional transition for each student would allow those affected to reconcile these trying times with reasonable solutions that accommodate their needs and allow them to continue to learn effectively.

We propose classes that are designated by the student as pass/fail will still contribute to any majors or minors that the student is pursuing. In essence, this would simply be a replacement for the letter grade while still allowing students to continue on their current academic path. It is important to take this action in order to make sure no student is unfairly impacted.

We love SUU and everything the university stands for. Through these tough times, we hope that the SUU community can agree to this change for this semester in the interest of looking out for every member in our global community.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/opinions/coronavirus-makes-college-and-life-pass-fail-perry/index.html