Hannah Richey
Opinion Edtior
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UAB’s inclusion of a pass/fail option is an important step in what students need in order to be successful in this unprecedented emergency, but the job isn’t done yet.
UAB student Michael McMillan introduced a petition on March 19 demanding pass/fail grades for the Spring 2020 semester and five days later the school responded with an opt-in system for pass/fail.
This is just a number of steps the university has to take to help students succeed with the switch to online and loss of jobs for students.
USGA also introduced an emergency grant for students affected by COVID-19. This is a $500 aid opportunity that is intended to assist in any unexpected expenses caused by the outbreak.
Unexpected expenses can be things like bills students are no longer able to pay and unexpected doctor visits.
The pass/fail option is a helpful boost to students who may have spotty internet access or a hectic housing situation that makes completing work difficult.
Many graduate schools and professional schools are also accepting pass/fail grades due to the outbreak. This means even pre-professional students will be able to opt-in if they choose.
The opt-in function is also useful to students who took certain classes for a GPA boost.
There are concerns with some professors not ensuring online classes are as accessible as possible for students.
A TikTok recently went viral that showed a professor did not include the test questions, only the answer choices, on the Canvas test and required students to open a separate document to view the questions. While this didn’t happen at UAB, professors need to be held accountable in this transition as well.
Accessibility needs to be paramount in this situation for everyone, not just those that choose pass/fail.
Hopefully by now professors have engaged with students to assess their needs and how best to accommodate them.
Making sure students have what they need for their newly online classes will also help keep them inside. If professors and the university work with students who have unreliable internet or an environment that isn’t conducive to education they will not feel like they have to go to the local library (if it’s open) or coffee shop to work.
In order to deal with new expenses students will need more than just the emergency grant, there needs to be a refund for housing and meal plans.
In the case of housing, the fairest option is to refund based on how long we were there.
For meal plans students may prefer the option to keep the money in their account and only have to pay for a partial plan in the 2020-2021 school year if they live on campus or have what they didn’t use refunded if they choose. This seems more sensible in the case of the dining fee that all students pay that some students may not have even used yet.
There are multiple student organizations working to make this transition as fair and easy as possible. USGA worked for the emergency grant and UAB Students for Diversity and Campus Safety has a list of measures they ask UAB to adopt.
UAB has been accommodating so far and it does take time to develop these plans, but they can’t stop at pass/fail.
