Tech offers choices on final grades

Arkansas Tech University students can now elect to change their course grading from a letter grade to pass/no credit as a final grade, the university announced Wednesday.

Arkansas Tech joins other schools, including the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, in making the decision in light of coursework shifting to remote-instruction during the coronavirus pandemic.

A resolution from the Arkansas Tech faculty senate making the change specifies that the change will help minimize the impact of the pandemic on students’ gradepoint averages.

The change “is intended to provide flexibility for students as they adapt to the unanticipated complications presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the resolution reads.

The change applies only to spring courses. Some courses aren’t eligible, such as eightweek courses that were already completed before the change to online classes and students in “programs with licensure or accreditation constraints that do not allow for the pass/no credit option,” according to the university’s announcement. Dozens of courses require a “C” or better, according to the university’s website.

The pass/no credit option means students can continue pursuing a letter grade or opt out for either a “pass” or no credit at all.

To help students, the university created a “decision tree” explaining how sticking with a letter grade could help or hurt the students’ gradepoint averages, once the students know their final grades.

Students can opt for pass/ no credit after already receiving a final grade. Students who are graduating this spring must request the change by May 29, and those who will stay enrolled must request the change by Aug. 3.

The university reached its decision after a leadership meeting that included Barbara Johnson, Arkansas Tech’s vice president for academic affairs, the faculty senate, the graduate council, the Ozark campus faculty senate and the Ozark campus’s chief academic officer, Sheila Jacobs.

“I believe we have arrived at a flexible solution that will best serve our students and provide them with the most beneficial path forward as they continue to pursue their academic goals,” Johnson said in the news release.

Not every school has plans to make similar changes, although several in Arkansas and nationwide have.

Houston Davis, University of Central Arkansas president, said March 31 his university wouldn’t make the change.

“Many students have put months of effort into earning their grades, and all of our faculty have worked diligently to prepare their students for success,” Davis said in an update for students. “For these reasons and others, we will not as a university assign pass/fail grades for the spring semester.”

The Conway university has, however, extended its deadline for course withdrawal and decided not to penalize scholarship recipients for withdrawing from courses this spring. Many scholarships have minimum completed-credit-hours requirements.