Ohio University has not yet reinstated its satisfactory/no credit alternative grading system that was introduced last year after OU sent students home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Academic Policy and Process group, which includes members of Faculty Senate, Student Senate and Graduate Student Senate, has yet to make the decision on whether or not to extend the alternate grading policy into the Spring Semester, OU spokesperson Carly Leatherwood said.
The indecision has encouraged several students to create petitions asking the university to reinstate the system for Spring Semester. One such petition was started by Student Senate Vice President Elizabeth Lilly.
Lilly felt it was important to give students a place to voice their opinions regarding the issue, she said. Lilly also wants to use the petition to show the university how important the S/NC option is for students before she and her fellow senate members present a bill urging the university to reinstate the option at the next Senate meeting.
As of Monday evening, Lilly’s petition has about 500 signatures.
Many students fear that without the S/NC option, their GPA will be negatively impacted, including freshmen who recently took their first steps onto a college campus as a student.
“Nothing has changed at all, at least for me, except I live in Athens instead of back in Akron,” Faith Merkle, an undecided freshman said. “If anything, I feel like I have more distractions and more issues here that I would need the S grade for than back at home.”
Similarly, Emily Marlow, a freshman studying communications, is concerned that the failure to give students the option to opt-into this grading system is “giving us another disadvantage,” Marlow said.
Many of the commenters on Lilly’s petition have expressed similar opinions.
“I think a lot of students have felt like nobody's listening to them, but we are listening to you guys,” Lilly said.
Lilly urges all students to come together for each other, sign petitions and make their voices heard.
“I think that it's important to sign this petition specifically because it shows that even when we're online, we can still come together for something that we believe in and, you know, if not opting in for yourself, realizing the benefit that it's had to thousands of students,” Lilly said.
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