This winter, the student members of the Committee on Educational Affairs (CEA) brought an argument that the College should adopt a mandatory Credit/No Credit (C/NC) grading policy for students in their first semester at the College. On April 3, faculty were informed about this argument, which will be a topic of discussion at the faculty meeting this afternoon.

This suggestion was based on similar policies at peer institutions, like Swarthmore, MIT, and Wellesley, where first-year students still receive letter grades on all course components, but receive “credit” or “no credit” designations on their official transcripts (i.e. shadow grading).

What proponents of the argument fail to realize is that adopting the policy could, in fact, result in significant academic harm, especially for students who do not come from elite academic backgrounds. Although there will not be a motion to adopt the policy at this afternoon’s meeting – the CEA brought this topic to the general faculty for discussion to build consensus on the “underlying value of the goals” – I think it is important to share my opinion here, because many students are not familiar with this argument and many professors who share my feel ings are afraid to voice opposition due to the framing’s focus on mental health, grades, and minorities.

My academic background can hardly be considered “elite”; I come from the Third World, where my mother did not even finish high school

It asserts that “isolation, stress and a myopic focus on academics … Celý příspěvek →