It is common sense that assessing an athlete’s prowess in a sport while injured does not do service to their true abilities. The same could be said for assessing a student’s academic performance in the middle of a pandemic, when many hardworking individuals find themselves at their lowest.
To assess a student’s performance without considering the current academic circumstances is wrong. Carleton should lower the requirements for maintaining academic scholarships from a 10.0 CGPA to a 9.5 CGPA for as long as COVID-19 prevails.
For many students, losing a scholarship has dire consequences for their financial stability and academic standing. It is evident that losing a source of income that pays for a student’s highest expense, their tuition, is going to negatively affect their mental health.
2020 has made it clearer than ever that Zoom university is not a suitable replacement for in-person classes. Despite the best efforts of professors and universities, the inescapable, isolating nature of online learning has led to widespread academic burnout. Burnout correlates with lower grades as a result of the transition to online education, which illustrates a dire issue: students’ grades are dropping and their finances may soon follow.
Despite these challenges, Carleton has not amended its minimum grade requirements for scholarships. To keep their scholarship, a Carleton undergraduate student must maintain a 10.0 CGPA over the fall and winter sessions of a given academic year. And despite the evidence demonstrating the difficulties online learning poses for students, Carleton’s scholarship formula assumes today’s academic conditions are comparable to a non-pandemic year, and faults students for shortcomings beyond their control.
This is unfair to the student body. Undergraduates who are enrolled in studies should be rewarded, or at least given greater leniency, for their dedication throughout a nearly year-long struggle. They deserve to be measured by their resilience and afforded opportunities to continue their higher education without the heavy burdens of their finances.
If a 10.0 CGPA is the hallmark of excellence during a normal academic year, then it is only logical to lower that grade during a time of crisis. Changing the minimum grade requirement to a lower threshold like 9.5 would foster a more equitable space for students to overcome a crisis unlike anything the world has seen before, while still ensuring a standard of academic excellence. This new grade cutoff would expect students (in most cases) to ensure a significant portion of their grades are above an A-, but would allow for a few more B’s and B+’s than the 10.0 cutoff permits—allowing students who find themselves just failing to make the mark this year another chance at re-earning their scholarships.
Though the effects of COVID-19 have been felt across demographics in Canada, it has especially injured the well-being of low-income communities. Lower-earning, and particularly BIPOC families have had a hard time recovering from the economic effects of the pandemic, and were hit harder during its peaks. Low-income students, whose scholarships may be crucial to their future enrolment, are not an exception to this trend.
In a period in which those least fortunate have been among the greatest affected, Carleton should not be maintaining previous barriers to success, such as the 10.0 CGPA cutoff for scholarship renewal. Instead, it should be taking them down.
That is not to say that there have not been effective policies put forward by the university. The work of the Carleton Academic Student Government and their passage of the SAT/UNS grading system in tandem with the university senate has alleviated some concerns surrounding academic performance.
However, these measures are temporary and limited, as students are only allowed to designate 1.0 out of 5.0 credits as SAT/UNS. The ramifications of losing scholarships will continue to affect students even after in-person classes restart.
It is clear many students have felt their grades and mental health slip while they endure feelings of isolation. While Carleton cannot address all of these concerns, it can and must do better to accommodate the financial needs of the students who have committed themselves to their academics—particularly as these students remain one of the only revenue streams keeping schools afloat amidst COVID-19.
It is true that most Carleton students will recover from the hardships associated with studying amidst a pandemic. However, just as an athlete’s recovery requires treatment, so too do students who have faced various difficulties in the past year, and the university must recognize that it is capable of offering this remedy. By lowering the minimum grade required for scholarships to a 9.5 CGPA, Carleton will not only administer this treatment, but will also allow students to bounce back by positioning them in a better financial state.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
