Written by: Sophie Downie Allen

@sophiecdownie

If you were to ask any current university student if their schooling or academic performance has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, they would most likely answer yes. Global events that transpired in 2020, namely the spread of the coronavirus disease, forced universities across the world to make substantial changes to their general operations. These changes were made to provide extra safety to the university community whilst also preserving the academic experience of students. One of the primary ways that many universities sought to alleviate academic stress for students was by implementing the pass/no credit option for grading. Most universities in Nova Scotia introduced the pass/no credit option in the Spring 2020 term, when the COVID-19 pandemic had shifted university operations from in-person to online. The pass/no credit system of grading gives students more options for how their grades are represented on their academic transcript. At SMU, the pass/no credit system allows students to represent failing grades as a no credit (NC) on their transcript and passing grades as a pass (P) on their transcript. The pass/no credit system also reduces the impact that a bad mark has on a student’s academic record, given that P and NC grades do not count towards one’s GPA. It is worth noting, however, that once a student requests a letter grade be changed to a pass/no credit grade, they cannot request their grade be changed back to a letter grade

During the Winter 2020 semester, when COVID-19 was just starting to seriously affect Nova Scotia, the Academic Senate at Saint Mary’s University (SMU) approved a pass/no credit grading option for students. In doing so, SMU joined a number of other universities in the province who implemented an alternative option for grading during the Winter 2020 term, such as Dalhousie University (Dal), Saint Francis Xavier University (StFX) and Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU). The pass/no credit grading option at SMU allowed students to request their letter grades be changed to a P or NC grade for up to a month after the end of final exams.

For many students at SMU, including myself, the pass/no credit option was instrumental in their success during the Winter 2020 term. The COVID-19 pandemic brought on a lot of unexpected changes in people’s lives, especially during its onset in March. Not only have these changes caused widespread mental and physical health issues and stress, but they also have directly affected students’ ability to participate in their classes and complete their schoolwork. Because of these factors, many students were likely unable to maintain the marks that they had previously worked toward or desired during the first half of the Winter 2020 semester. The pass/no credit option, therefore, allowed students at SMU to preserve their academic record amidst uncontrollable, and often negative, circumstances. Personally, I experienced a downturn in my mental health during the first couple of months of the pandemic, which caused me to lose motivation when it came to my academics. Without the availability of the pass/no credit option for grading during the Winter 2020 term at SMU, my GPA would have suffered as a result of COVID-19.

It is clear that the implementation of the pass/no credit option for the Winter 2020 term was a hugely beneficial, and arguably necessary, move on behalf of the SMU administration. Perhaps this is why it was so shocking when SMU did not offer the pass/no credit option for the 2020-2021 academic year, as other universities in Nova Scotia such as Dal and MSVU chose to do. On December 8th, 2020, the Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association (SMUSA) released a statement on their website calling on Saint Mary’s University to implement the pass/no credit option for the 2020-2021 academic year. In the article, SMUSA defends the importance of the pass/no credit model by arguing that issues pertaining to the pandemic and online learning, such as higher levels of anxiety, increased workload, communication difficulties, time zone differences, and limited internet access, have continued to hinder the academic performance of students throughout the Fall 2020 term. Despite SMUSA’s advocacy for the pass/no credit model, on December 20th, 2020, SMUSA provided an update to their December 8th statement, which confirmed that SMU would not be implementing the pass/no credit option for the 2020-2021 academic year right now. However, the organization affirmed in the update that they would continue to advocate for the implementation of pass/no credit option for the rest of the academic year.

SMUSA’s public advocacy for the pass/no credit option at SMU for the 2020-2021 academic year has highlighted serious oversights in the university administration’s long-term COVID-19 response. One only needs to look at the comments on SMUSA’s second Instagram post about the pass/no credit model to grasp just how displeased SMU students are by the university’s failure to implement the pass/no credit option for the 2020-2021 academic year. By not providing students with options as to how their grades are represented during a pandemic, SMU is showing that they have little understanding of how COVID-19 and online learning continues to uniquely affect students. This is especially true for international students, who make up 29% of SMU’s student population. Universities should accommodate students whenever it is possible amidst such unparalleled global circumstances, and SMU has clearly not continued to do so to their full capability.

Although students are largely in disagreement over SMU’s choice not to implement the pass/no credit option for the 2020-2021 academic year, there are some logical explanations as to why the SMU administration may have made this decision. Firstly, the SMU administration may have seen the pass/no credit option as something which allowed students to put less effort into their schoolwork. At SMU, any letter grade above a D constitutes a passing grade. So, a student who received a final grade of D and a student who received a final grade of A during the Spring 2020 term could both have had their letter grades converted to a P. This means that when the pass/no credit option is offered, students can work less hard in a class, receive a low letter grade, and still end up with the same mark as students who worked to receive top grades. Secondly, the SMU administration may be concerned that the implementation of the pass/no credit option will cause the university to lose money. Every term, SMU makes money off of students who drop out of classes past the add/drop date or who drop out of school completely. In both of these cases, students are not refunded full tuition. The availability of the pass/no credit option is likely to improve students’ grades, and as such, students will be less likely to drop out of their classes or drop out of school altogether.

By highlighting gaps in SMU’s long-term COVID-19 response, SMUSA also serves to expose the general lack of awareness toward the student experience within the university’s administration, and in turn, validate the experiences of students who struggled academically during the Fall 2020 term. By asserting that they are committed to seeing through the implementation of a long-term model for the pass/no credit option, SMUSA proves that they are truly an organization that works to benefit the student body at SMU, rather than an organization that perpetuates the interests of the university administration. SMUSA’s willingness to continue challenging SMU on cornerstone issues such as this should remind students that their academic struggles as a result of the pandemic have not gone unrecognized, and should too give students hope that the university will re-evaluate their COVID-19 response for the rest of the 2020-2021 academic year and beyond.

SMUSA’s Advocacy for the Pass/No Credit Option and Why it Matters

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