Letter to the Editor: College must enact universal Credit/No Credit option.

by The Black Student Union

March 27, 2020

Dear Kenyon students and faculty,

On Monday, March 23, the College’s faculty voted to extend the Pass/D/Fail deadline to Friday, May 1 due to new policy addressing COVID-19. We would like to thank the faculty who have already expressed their concerns for their students about the existing grading policy. Since this decision directly impacts students and was made without students in the room, we ask that our own concerns for the policy are not only heard, but taken into strong consideration. The undersigned believe that while this is a step in the right direction, the College’s faculty and administration must reconsider their decision and change it to a universal Credit/No Credit option. According to the course catalog, “Courses are designated as CR/NC when letter grades are not an appropriate system for evaluating student performance.” The undersigned deem the present as a situation where grades are not fit to evaluate student performance.

First, we would like to highlight that this is not an unprecedented request. Harvard, Dartmouth, Duke, MIT, Wellesley College, Columbia University and many comparable institutions across the country have already implemented similar changes for their spring semester.

We choose to advocate for a universal Credit/No Credit option over universal Pass/D/Fail because we believe Pass/D/Fail will not ensure enough protection during this strenuous time for Kenyon students. While a universal Pass/D/Fail system does not affect a student’s overall GPA, a grade of a D+, D, D-,or F is still recorded on a student’s transcript. In a universal Credit/No Credit option, no grades from the semester would appear on a student’s transcript or affect their GPA.

Fundamentally, college is an inequitable institution –– students come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, varying levels of prior education and vastly different home lives. In participating in the ‘distance learning’ model, even the most well-equipped students have struggled to adjust. Other students have returned to the environments that may have made their experiences before Kenyon more difficult; some of us do not even have access to the basic resources offered on campus, such as reliable internet or a quiet space for concentrated study. Thus, by keeping the current grade system in place, Kenyon harms everyone and disproportionately harms the students that have already been negatively affected by adversity and inequity. Our physical campus acts as a center of resources; now that our student body is dispersed, it is only right to honor these changes to the best of our abilities by switching to the Credit/No Credit model.

We understand the arguments for keeping grades and putting them on transcripts. Scholarship eligibility, cum laude, summer employment, senior employment after Kenyon, and graduate school opportunities all loom in the future. In addition, there are people on conditional enrollment who need these grades to continue their education at Kenyon. While these situations are real, the traditional letter grade system has become insufficient in the evaluation of a student’s academic performance in light of these new non-traditional circumstances. A letter grade now serves as a reflection of other factors, such as access to various resources and the stability of one’s home environment. Something as simple as an asterisk on the spring semester grades could remind anyone as to why the College shifted to Credit/No Credit for this particular semester. It is important for Kenyon College to join other institutions in the implementation of a universal system to ensure a level playing field across institutions when it comes to considering important next steps for our students such as graduate school and future employment, as well as within our own institution. To address the issue of the GPAs of students on conditional enrollment or scholarships, we ask that, along with its implementation of a universal Credit/No Credit model, Kenyon College adequately supports these students by granting them a semester of amnesty.

In addition, the system currently in place provides greater flexibility in students’ decisions to individually designate classes as Pass/D/Fail. This is not good enough. Allowing students the option to keep letter grades cheapens the Pass/D/Fail option; letter grades may be used as an instrument to signal to future employers or graduate programs that a student was able to successfully weather the challenges of this semester while other students will not have the opportunity of keeping letter grades due to the reality of our dire situations. Choosing Pass/D/Fail for a course would be “quietly but powerfully stigmatized, but it would also be the choice most necessary for those most impacted,” as quoted in the Harvard Crimson’s editorial “The Necessity of Universal Pass-Fail.” An important issue to address in the College’s current grading policy is the lack of consistency throughout all departments. While some departments are following this opt-in system, others are not. This lack of an overarching standard across the departments is yet another reason to mandate a stricter universal Credit/No Credit option.

It is important to fully recognize that any grading system at this time is obsolete. We cannot downplay the severity of this situation. Doing so is a willful ignorance that harms everyone by reinforcing inequities. Some of us have already been forced to pick up jobs, assist immunocompromised relatives, take on vastly different roles in our household, are on the other side of the world or have even been potentially exposed to COVID-19 ourselves. We see the universal Credit/No Credit option as the most feasible to protect as many students as possible from any circumstances, anticipated or not. Regardless of whether or not you believe you are currently being affected by this decision or the greater global pandemic, it is important to remember that there are members in our community that would greatly benefit from this decision. In addition, you may be unaffected right now, but that does not guarantee that you will not be affected in the future while school is still in session.

We encourage the entire Kenyon community to take this time as an opportunity to practice empathy towards everyone affected by this unfortunate situation; adjusting the grading system is merely one important step in aiding those students and faculty most affected by this outbreak. We must strive to do all we can to protect as many people in the Kenyon community as possible.

The link to the petition can be found here.

Signed,

The Black Student Union at Kenyon College

7 Comments

Comments for this article have closed. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor for publication, please email us at collegian@kenyon.edu.

Anonymous

March 27, 2020 — 4:50 pm ET

What about those who are in need of boosting their GPA's and have worked hard thus far to improve their prospects. By transitioning to a credit/no credit, you are hurting their futures. And although it is true that some students may be affected to a greater degree than others by the coronavirus outbreak, these dire situations are forced upon all of us. We are all "passive" agents in the face of harsh reality. If we move towards this all-or-nothing credit/no credit model, then we have become active agents and we are "actively" hurting some students' interests. I do not see how this approach could be a via option. The current system where students may choose between keeping their grades or going with the P/D/Fail option is not ideal, but it is the compromised position that could work.

Anonymous

March 27, 2020 — 5:35 pm ET

Anonymous"These dire situations are forced upon all of us." Yes, exactly. By switching to Credit/No Credit, Kenyon would make more of an effort to protect every student. Yes, we must face a harsh reality, but we can choose to be proactive. Keeping the optional P/D/Fail system will "actively" hurt professors and students. As mentioned in the article, several highly respected institutions have already changed grades to Credit/No Credit or something similar. This approach is a viable option. While I empathize with those who want to boost their GPAs, Kenyon should focus on protecting as many students as possible.

JJD

March 27, 2020 — 8:49 pm ET

AnonymousThese are important points noted in the comment above.

In the article, the writer mentions that we should seriously consider what peer colleges are implementing. This is from the President of Colby College:

"Empowering Students

We have many goals for a Colby education, and one that I view as essential is imbuing our students with a sense of agency and with the tools to make sound, informed judgments throughout their lives. With that in mind, and given the change to remote learning, we have considered a number of options for our grading policy this semester. Some have argued for mandating credit/no credit or satisfactory/unsatisfactory for all courses. Others have argued for the importance of assigning letter grades to preserve access to future opportunities (e.g., graduate school), for proper recognition of hard work, or even because letter grades are essential to raising a GPA that might have faltered for any number of reasons.

Given variation in learning styles and priorities, we have determined that providing our students with substantial flexibility to choose the grading practice that is best for them this semester is the right way forward. Students will be able to take any or all courses for letter grades or for satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) designation. The typical constraints on using this designation for courses in majors and minors will not pertain this semester. The final date for designating courses S/U will be the last day of classes, May 8, which provides ample time for decision-making. We recognize that these decisions can be complicated or feel like a high-stakes exercise. Students will be advised closely by faculty and class deans as they choose the grading system that suits their individual situations and will receive more details on these issues soon."

Choice, with additional flexibility, is a solution that could meet the needs of all Kenyon students.

Anonymous

March 27, 2020 — 10:21 pm ET

I think it's worth noting that most of the other schools mentioned in this petition-- Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth-- that have enacted this policy already have much stronger name recognition when it comes to employers and graduate schools than Kenyon does, both in the U.S. and abroad. For seniors that need this last semester to pull up their GPAs before they graduate into a recession, this policy could really be a setback. I don't think a universal policy is fair to members of the class of 2020 that only have this semester left to change their grades and have already put in the work during the first half of the semester, or who have experienced personal setbacks earlier in their college career that affected their academic performance and again, are depending on this last set of grades to make a difference.

Cortney Johnson

March 28, 2020 — 1:02 am ET

While I certainly agree that we do need to find concrete ways to aid those in our community most affected by the changes, I ask that people also consider the impact that moving to universal C/NC may have on students who are already at a disadvantage within the traditional education system. For some students with particularly insufficient educational backgrounds before Kenyon, academic acclimation can take quite a bit of time. The later semesters of college may be the primary opportunity for these students to make up for a previous lower gpa and to feel that their work, and therefore grades, reflect their abilities. These students may face academic disadvantage over multiple semesters, and certain points in their academic career may be invaluable. A lack of academic preparedness and its possible effects are inextricable from a discussion on academic inequity, and must be part of considerations regarding a restructuring of the grading system. I'm not sure that there is a ‘universal’ way to overcome the inequalities that distance learning has created without possibly doubly disadvantaging a group of students (particularly the upperclassmen) already impacted by the pre-existing, overarching education system.

Anonymous

March 28, 2020 — 1:54 am ET

I think this is a very valid option! However, I see the Universal Credit/No Credit model as insufficient for addressing the underlying issue: that each student has particular and unequal burdens. While universal Credit/No Credit is intended to level the academic playing field, it unduly overshadows the needs of individual students during this crisis and overlooks necessary elements that affect students’ subsequent academic performance and prospects.

First, all students and those particularly affected should be address specifically. Ideally, if Kenyon students could reach out to faculty and/or the administration with their concerns or/and specific situation, there can be understanding in how to evaluate performance. This seemed to be somewhat addressed by the college relatively early. Additionally, Kenyon faculty *should* be more lenient and flexible on grading during this crisis. While I can understand how the universal Credit/No Credit model provides an easy treatment to the current situation, which may indeed be appropriate at this time, it doesn’t seem to be a “cure” in addressing the problems.

Second, Universal Credit/No Credit model may detrimentally affect students’ future academic performance, motivation, and/or prospects. As mentioned in previous comments, those that wish to raise their semester/overall GPA would be unaddressed. For those in prerequisite classes (or classes that build on ones taken in another semester), future academic performance could be negatively affected, especially if grades act as a motivator. Those that want to showcase their hard work in a particular class or subject wouldn’t have that displayed on their transcripts.

While I value everything mentioned in this post, I just wanted to express some of the counter opinions for this situation that address individual needs and choice. Ultimately, I think it might be best that students have the ability to curate their academic presentation, with help from an understanding faculty and administration.

Whatever the outcome, thank you for sharing and voicing your opinions!

David E Antila '82

March 30, 2020 — 9:34 am ET

While a Binary system is appropriate for many things - switches, gates, and pre-teen discipline... ;-) the scalar-value grading/marking system e.g. A-F, 1-5, 1-10, etc., whether curved or not, has been adopted by most countries on Earth.
While I understand the desire to simplify during this crisis, the arguments for the binary or ternary scale seem to fall short of the rigor and creativity for which Kenyon is known.
Grades matter to grad schools and first jobs, after that not so much. While in college, however, many other downstream processes like Latin Honors, Greek Honor Societies, etc. depend on letter grades and the true GPA that they confer.
Since we are in all uncharted waters, I offer the following idea for your consideration:
Pick your letter grade and submit it to your Professor. Both of you know how you are performing, give or take a plus or minus, right? The Prof reviews and then returns a response. If there is a significant difference, have a conversation. Make it happen.
Bonus: accurate self-assessment skills are of high value in business and personal relationships.

Letter to the Editor: College must enact universal Credit/No Credit option.

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