The novel coronavirus has officially taken over. Universities are closing down dorms, mandating online education and essentially ending all student activities on campus. The Olympics are postponed, over half of the states across the nation are instituting strict lockdowns and people are losing their jobs.
But alas, Emory expects us to dust ourselves off and carry on. What else could a competitive institution ranked 21st among national universities possibly expect from its students? As determined, aggressive academics with an insatiable desire to learn, we can handle anything that comes our way. We are just too smart and too dedicated to let a worldwide crisis get in the way of our GPAs.
Because of this, some professors have decided to give all of their students A’s, citing the inequity of the transition to online learning. I’ve also heard horror stories of mandated pass-fail classes for all, where students who want to be on the Dean’s List are now incapable. Additionally, students nationwide have circulated petitions for grading on a so-called “Double A” scale, wherein students would only receive an “A” or “A-” in all their classes, according to Kayli Balin, a student at Wellesley College (Mass.). Other universities, meanwhile, have done nothing at all to inform students about their academic futures. Many schools seem to have a general sense of direction for how to approach the COVID-19 crisis, yet none have found a truly effective path.
After returning from an extended spring break and completing a week of classes, I have felt minimal empathy from the University. I’ve received dozens of emails about how we are a community and can get through this trying time together. These emails state that financial resources exist for those in need (which, in fairness, have benefited many students) and that faculty are working to make this transition as smooth as possible.
What I haven’t seen, however, is a focus on academics. The student body is used to in-person learning; most of us have studied in lecture halls, classrooms and libraries since first grade — not our bedrooms for hours each day. Our homes — our new classrooms — are becoming caves of anxiety, fear, loneliness and an honest lack of motivation. And yet academic expectations have hardly changed. For my pre-med friends, the option of pass-fail is completely irrelevant, for medical schools are unlikely to accept an “S” next to organic chemistry on applicants’ transcripts; they want to see A’s. And for some students, their professors have canceled live lectures entirely and have opted to give more homework, forcing students to teach themselves material they do not know.
As for myself, technology, which stresses me enough as it is, now dictates all of my classes, assignments and professor interactions, as well as the consistency of my panic attacks.
Allowing students to opt for the pass-fail option was done with good intent, butis far from sufficient. As described by an EdSurge senior reporter Rebecca Koenig, “grades from this highly unusual semester may not accurately measure student learning anyway, but instead assess other variables, such as how well students perform under stress or whether they happen to have the right tech tools available.” For these reasons, I strongly suggest that Emory institute a universal “Double A” grading model, where all students would receive an “A” or “A-” for the rest of the Spring semester. Undergraduates at Harvard, Yale, Brown and Stanford are already advocating for this system because the impacts on grades due to inequalities in technological access or challenging home situations would be minimized. It would allow students the peace of mind that they can academically succeed despite the incredible obstacles thrown upon them because of COVID-19.
We all knew the transition to remote learning would be difficult; however, the intelligent and resilient students that make up Emory do not have the necessary built-in skills to seamlessly adjust to what was thrown upon us in a week. It is insensitive to keep syllabi the same and barely change our grading system. We cannot study like we used to. We cannot have peace of mind when knowing that our parents may no longer be working. We cannot meet up with friends to study for class. We cannot wake up at the same time as we did previously. And we cannot achieve the same mastery of class material if we must teach it to ourselves.
Emory needs to do more to assist students in their academic anxieties. It is more than insensitive to expect us to learn as we have in the past. None of us signed up to maintain a decent GPA amid a worldwide crisis.
To bring this to fruition, I urge you to sign this petition.
Claire Pomykala (21C) is from Baltimore.
