As students and professors adjust to remote learning, many Pace students have expressed their interest in having Pass/Fail grades for this semester. This means instead of letter grades that are calculated into the student’s grade point average (GPA), students will only receive a P or F on their transcript, which will not affect their GPA.

Many students on both campuses have shared a petition which voices concerns and challenges students face with remote learning. The petition, which was created by “Anonymous Pace Student,” also has a list of reasons why the university should consider switching to Pass/Fail for this semester: 

“Attention is not at the same caliber at home or remote location as in the classroom. Not everybody has internet access or supporting technology to be able to participate in a timely manner with the course load and class scheduled time. Some students would also not be able to access a computer at a local public library due to public closures of businesses in their neighborhoods.” 

This past Monday, an email was sent out to Pace faculty asking them to complete a survey about their thoughts on allowing Pass/Fail as an option. The survey gave options as follows:

 -Pass/Fail should be made available to students before the semester ends.

-Pass/Fail should be made available to students after receiving their final grades.

-I do not support making the option for Pass/Final available. 

The email also states that the Deans will be making a recommendation on the matter by Friday, March 27th. 

Junior Alexandra Jareck says she supports Pass/Fail because of the stress that this pandemic and online classes have caused.

“I’m supporting Pass/Fail because there is just way too much going on right now,” Jareck said. “The pandemic is stressful enough. The workload is too heavy for everything to be online.  As someone who is taking 18 credits, this is way too much for me. I’m on my laptop for ten hours a day since online has started. I know canceling the rest of the semester and doing Pass/Fail right now might seem extreme, but these are very extreme times.”

A popular Pace Instagram account, @barstoolpace, recently shared polls and questions to students about going Pass/Fail and received an overwhelming amount of students replying with their support. 

Abby Bonds, a senior at Pace Pleasantville, also supports going Pass/Fail due to the stress of learning fully online.

“I support going Pass/Fail for the semester because many students don’t learn well online, and the sudden loss of structure and daily routine has left many students feeling demotivated and directionless,” Bonds said. “Making the grading system Pass/Fail would elevate a lot of the stress many students are feeling with the sudden move to fully online classes. I hear students who need their GPA for graduate school or scholarships but surely those schools and programs would take note that there was a global pandemic affecting their semester. I recognize some people are not in favor of going Pass/Fail, but I feel the vast majority of students and professors would favor the switch to help students get settled into their online classes.”

As of March 27, 2020, the petition has 1,719 signatures and has a current goal of 2,500. 

Let us know what you think by taking the poll on the homepage of our website!