As universities across the country change their academic policies to adjust to a virtual campus, thousands of students are working from home in what amounts to a once in a lifetime academic disruption. The University Senate at Western Connecticut State University, responding to student concerns and a directive from Connecticut State Colleges and University’s systems office, voted to extend the deadline for switching courses to Pass/Fail and to the course Withdrawal policy until May 8, 2020. 

With schools like Southern, UCONN, and Yale rolling out more extreme grading policy changes over the past month, some students say that WCSU isn’t doing enough to help those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. 

On Monday mornings, Tommy Cherisme ‘21 gets off work at 6:30 a.m if he’s lucky. He gets home at 7 a.m., and, as a student senator, keeps himself awake until noon to serve on SGA’s Finance Committee. At 2 p.m, he reviews notes and assignments uploaded to Blackboard for the class that would normally meet at that time. He reads the chapter and goes to bed, waking up by 9:30 p.m. to go back to work. This is his life during the state’s coronavirus response. 

“Being at home doesn’t make it easier to succeed. Work life has increased more because bills are still coming,” said Cherisme, a junior in Health Promotion and Exercise Sciences who described himself during this crisis as a full time student working a full time job. “I’ve had to work overnights 40 hours a week and still be able to complete my work online.” 

On Wednesday, April 1, Cherisme and other senators from WCSU’s student government waited for the results to come in from a special University Senate meeting. Faculty senators were making a decision on how WCSU would address Pass/Fail and Withdrawal policies in light of the coronavirus pandemic. 

A week earlier, on Wednesday, March 25, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities President Mark Ojakian emailed the CSCU community with updates on their response to coronavirus and transition to online learning. In the email, on Pass/Fail, Ojakian announced that Connecticut’s community colleges had moved to a credit/no-credit option for all classes to lessen anxiety around the rapid move to online learning. “The state universities are working individually to ensure similar options are offered to students,” Ojakian said. 

Following the April 1 Senate meeting, WCSU extended the deadline for changing to pass/fail or withdrawal to the end of the semester, but did not expand the types of classes where pass/fail is allowable or increase the course limit. Pass/Fail may only be chosen for free electives, and only applied to one course for the semester. Under this policy, students may not opt-in to pass/fail for any general competency requirements for their degree or for classes within their major/minor requirements.

“I recognize that the transition to online learning is challenging for everyone,” Provost Missy Alexander said in a statement to the Echo Newspaper, “but I think that after a few weeks, most students and faculty will be able to adjust their expectations for the courses in a way that preserves critical learning outcomes but reflects the disruption in the experience.” 

Cherisme was expecting something more: “I was hoping that the grading system would become more flexible due to the tremendous changes,” he said. “Not being on campus takes away from a lot of resources that I had available to succeed from classes.” 

While many campus resources are being reimagined online (for example, tutoring services have moved to Webex and IT Services has made Adobe programs downloadable for all students), the format change is drastic for some classes built around in-person instruction and physical activities or experimentation. 

“Classes like kinesiology and personal training that I would benefit from being in class and participating in labs have been reduced to just textbook reading and trying to apply what I’m reading on my own. At this point I’m reading only to be able to answer what I’m asked and I don’t feel like I’m retaining as much as I would be in school.” On the policy extension, Cherisme said: “Pass/Fail being made only for electives doesn’t help me at all because my classes are all major requirements.”

“I’m honestly surprised that they even made this change as it is so slight and will have little impact on the student body,” Gina Poulin ‘21 said. Poulin, a Secondary Education major, pointed to recent changes at other public universities: “I am curious as to why our university is not following the suit of several other colleges in Connecticut, especially UConn and Southern.” 

“While I think it’s a good thing for the university to extend the withdrawal deadline and pass/fail deadline, I think that the decision for the pass/fail exception to apply only to free elective credits is near pointless for a majority of the student population, who are likely to be taking little to no free elective credits at all,” Mikayla Silkman ‘22 said, and she expanded on her own suggestion for the University:  “I think the pass/fail system would be best served to be extended to include all non-major specific courses, meaning that a student could receive a pass/fail grade in a general competency, but not in a class for their major. I think this would alleviate a lot of stress on overburdened students who are worried about keeping up with all of their classes after a radical change in their learning lifestyle.” 

Silkman, a Professional Writing major, has been struggling to adjust to the online class format and has seen her classmates struggling too. “If students had the peace of mind to be able to devote more attention to their major-specific classes and not fear as much about the others, I think they would average higher grades than they would with the system as it’s functioning now, where so many students are feeling so overwhelmed they’re completely shutting down.” 

Since students were sent off-campus on March 13, many students’ lives have changed drastically as Connecticut and neighboring states respond to the coronavirus pandemic and WCSU’s switch to distance learning. With CT Governor Ned Lamont’s Stay Safe Stay Home directive and NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYS on PAUSE directing all non-essential employees to stay home and many K-12 schools closed across the tri-state area, many WCSU students are hunkered down at home with their parents, siblings, and other family members, working to balance the new stresses of isolation, work, and their education from their laptops and phones.  

Students across the state are advocating for temporary adjustments to the grading system. A petition on change.org for WCSU to offer opt-in Pass/Fail for all classes this semester gained 1,176 signatures before it closed on Thursday, April 2. WCSU currently enrolls 4,145 full-time students. A similar petition for CSCU has garnered 3,051 signatures as of the time of reporting. At the K-12 level, another change.org petition asking Governor Lamont to enforce a Universal Pass for all Connecticut public school students passed 103,000 signatures. 

Provost Alexander has increased communication with students and faculty groups about the impact of coronavirus, academic policy, and recommendations since the move off-campus. In an April 2 email updating faculty on the university response, Provost Alexander counseled faculty on the response to the pass/fail decision: “While this may not be the outcome our students hoped for, if we keep responding to their concerns thoughtfully and with a few encouraging words, they will gain their confidence in navigating this new environment.” 

Paul Steinmetz, Director of University Relations, said that university leadership is being cautious about actions that could hurt student’s academic careers in the long run. While policies at WCSU have not changed drastically, Steinmetz said, Provost Alexander is encouraging professors and students both to approach these challenges with compassion and flexibility. 

“Students will have time to figure out if they can succeed, taking a chance right up to the last day, so they have room to adjust as well,” Provost Alexander explained in her statement. “In sum, it gives everyone a minute to breathe, reflect, and adjust expectations, without acting rashly.” 

Tommy Cherisme doesn’t think the Provost’s encouragements apply to him or students like him. “I don’t believe any student working 40 overnight hours will ever find adjusting to online learning just after a few weeks,” he said. “Every three weeks, the nights that I work are changed, and by the time I get used to one schedule, I’ll have to keep readjusting, and by the time the semester is over I fear I’ll still be adjusting.” 

This week, the Echo is publishing a series of stories on grading policy and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on academics. We’ll be revisiting the students interviewed here throughout the week and highlighting interviews with additional students. If you are a member of the WCSU community and have a perspective on academic relief, contact us at echo@wcsu.edu.