Student body presidents of more than a 100 colleges on Wednesday urged graduate schools and potential employers not to penalize undergraduates who have opted to, or were required to, accept pass/fail grades in their courses, instead of letter grades, after instruction moved online on almost all campuses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
They also said GPA cutoffs should be removed or lightened, standardized test score thresholds should be lowered and job offers must not be rescinded based on spring semester grades.
The student leaders said the shutdown of campuses has caused a huge upheaval in many students’ lives, especially in the learning environments for historically marginalized and low-income undergraduates. And schools and potential employees must take this into consideration.
Leaders of student bodies at as many as 132 institutions issued a letter saying universities’ graduate programs and companies’ hiring managers should not make any admission or employment decisions based on undergraduates’ spring 2020 performance. They urged academic bodies, such as the Association of American Universities, to also spread this message. The signatories to the letter represent more than two million students from public and private institutions across the country.
“We need to ensure that we are extending empathy during this difficult time, and reducing academic stress for students during this period of uncertainty,” said Ranen Miao, student body president at Washington University in St. Louis, in a press statement about the letter.
Student leaders said graduate schools and employees need to be proactive rather than reactive in their admissions and hiring processes in this time of pandemic.
“Adopt policies that will ensure equity and accessibility in really critical admissions and hiring processes moving forward,” is the letter’s message, said William Zhou, a senior and president of the undergraduate council of students at Brown University, to Diverse.
