UAFS adds to students’ options on class grades

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith is changing its grading policy to give students a pass/withdrawal option after seeing their course grades for spring classes, Chancellor Terisa Riley announced Wednesday.

The policy change is aimed at helping students “not to feel penalized by this shift to remote, online learning,” Riley said in an email to the campus.

UAFS, like other colleges in the state, has shifted to online-only classes in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and John Brown University, a private Christian college in Siloam Springs, also have changed grading policies to generally expand options for students this spring, though the policies vary by school.

UAFS students will wait until after final grades have been posted for the spring semester before making their decisions.

Students will have three choices. They can keep their grade in a course, designate a passing grade to “Passing” so it does not affect their gradepoint average, or withdraw from a course. A “Passing” grade will count toward degree completion, but withdrawing from a course means the class will not count toward a degree.

The spring semester ends May 8, and students have until June 5 to make their choices.

The policy change is “an effort to prevent potentially negative, educational outcomes for students,” Riley said.

Students with questions about how the grade options might affect financial aid or scholarships should contact the university’s financial aid office, the email states. But Riley also referred to federal legislation known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, stating that “the CARE Act provides guidance which allows us to be very liberal with the calculation of Satisfactory Academic Progress as a direct result of implications from COVID-19.”

Among other large public universities, the University of Central Arkansas has said it will not expand the offering of pass/fail grades this spring.

At the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, the state’s largest public university, faculty recommendations “are currently being considered regarding potential changes to the university’s spring grading policy,” spokesman John Post said in an email Wednesday.