Carleton University’s Senate passed three motions at a meeting today, Oct. 30, outlining a compassionate grading policy for the fall term.
According to the motion, all failed courses will automatically convert to an unsatisfactory credit, except for courses failed due to disciplinary reasons such as academic integrity offences.
Students will also have 0.5 credits for the fall semester to designate as satisfactory, and punitive academic performance evaluations for the fall and winter term will be delayed until the next academic year.
Credits designated as satisfactory or unsatisfactory do not affect a student’s CGPA.
Howard Nemiroff is an associate dean of undergraduate students and chair of the senate committee on curriculum, admissions and studies policy.
“As we continue to adjust to the challenges posed by COVID-19, it is still critical to ensure that our students will not be unduly disadvantaged,” he said in a memorandum to the senate.
The three motions are part of the Carleton Academic Student Government’s (CASG) efforts to implement short-term grading reform for this academic year as students adapt to online school.
“I hope these changes to grading can help put many of our minds at ease as we continue to deal with the stresses of this pandemic,” CASG president Matt Gagné said in a Facebook post announcing the Senate’s decision.
Gagné said although these changes are only temporary, CASG will continue to advocate for long-term grading reform as well.
“We want to see what we can change permanently to make things better and more coherent to what the 2020 student needs,” Gagné told the Charlatan last month. “The goal is to recognize that the policy we have now was created 30, 40 years ago and things have changed.”
In March, the Senate passed a motion that gave students the option to designate their winter semester credits as satisfactory or unsatisfactory on a course-by-course basis.
More to come…
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated that students will have a 0.5 credit each semester to designate as satisfactory, which is incorrect. The 0.5 satisfactory credit is currently only for the fall term. the Charlatan regrets this error.
Featured photo by Kyle Fazackerley.
