UI Senate to consider more lenient “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID” grading for spring semester
Linda Moorhouse, chair of the Education Policy committee, discusses the day’s agenda. On Monday, the Senate Executive Committee voted to send the “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID” proposal to the UI Senate’s meeting next Monday.
February 2, 2021
This Monday, the University Senate’s Educational Policy Committee voted to approve a proposal allowing students to opt for a “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID” grade mode for the spring 2021 semester.
Under this proposal, EP.21.062, students receiving a grade of D- or higher in a course would be allowed to opt for a “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID” grade mode and receive credit for that course without it being used in GPA calculations.
Students who receive a grade lower than D- will be able to replace it with “No Pass COVID” under this proposal, with no effect on their GPA.
While similar to the credit/no credit (CR/NC) policies from the previous two semesters, under the newly proposed “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID” grading regime, students who receive grades in the D range would still receive course credit if they opt for it, unlike CR/NC.
As a result, the proposal would suspend CR/NC grading for this semester, and instead substitute it with “Pass COVID/No Pass COVID.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“We have learned that students who earned grades of D (D+, D, D-) over the last two semesters have struggled trying to understand if they should have elected CR/NC or not,” the proposal noted.
Additionally, the proposal calls for extending the deadline to drop a course without a grade of W to 11:59 p.m. Central Time on “the last day of classes.”
However, the proposal notes that this extension will not affect the University’s course refund schedule.
The proposal will be sent to the University Senate for final approval at its next meeting on Monday, Feb. 8.
