Last week on Thursday, April 9, all Keene State College students received an email from President Treadwell saying that a new pass/fail grading option would be available. This grading option will be available for many classes and will allow students to choose whether they receive a letter grade for a class or if they would rather have it come down to passing or not passing. In addition, you can decide which classes you want this system to apply to and which you want a letter grade in.
This change comes after many students petitioned for this option to be available due to the sudden switch to remote learning potentially not being an optimal way of learning for some students. Many classes also had to change the way they run entirely, which isn’t what the students signed up for.
I personally believe this decision is the “best of both worlds” and another notch in the win column for the way Keene State has handled the COVID-19 outbreak. On one side, there were many students who hadn’t been affected by the switch to online classes and felt really good about their GPAs for this semester and, on the other side, there were students struggling with the switch who don’t handle this type of learning well. So what better compromise than making it an option?
Another aspect of having pass/fail is that it supports the students who may not be doing their best work right now due to all of the sudden changes in the world affecting their mental health. In a world where some students may not like being home, can’t go home, see their friends or really do many of the things that they love, grades may not be at the top of their priorities. This allows those students some wiggle room to focus on themselves as opposed to worrying about that C they got on their science test.
On top of this, they also help out students who need to boost their GPA for this semester to keep scholarships. It also keeps many students honest because if they were forced to adopt a pass/fail system, many students would probably do the bare minimum for many of their classes because their GPA wouldn’t move no matter how much effort is put in (assuming they pass). In addition, there may be some classes that students aren’t able to use this system for, but that means that if they get overwhelmed with work, they can have the classes not for their major be pass/fail and put more of their effort toward the classes that actually matter for them.
Obviously, there will still be some students who abuse this system and put in minimal effort or wait until the last minute to make their decision when they find out their grade in a certain class isn’t where they want it to be, but overall this is much more positive for many students.
Personally, this change doesn’t do much due to it only applying for one of my classes and, with it being a class I’m doing quite well in, I don’t plan on making it into a pass/fail. Despite this, I think this is a very admirable change that Keene State is doing that many schools aren’t and continues to show that President Treadwell and those around her are about the students.
Cristian Valentin can be contacted at:
cvalentin@kscequinox.com
