The third week of a semester abruptly shifted online has begun with some comforting news for students. Last week, UNC Wilmington announced two major policies to assist students impacted by the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 30, Chancellor Sartarelli sent out a campus-wide message concerning UNCW participating in a UNC system policy about prorated refunds for housing and campus dining. In short, this means that the refunds are expected to cover the period where dorms were uninhabited and dining plans went unused following March 23, the date by which students were expected to vacate campus housing unless granted an exception.

More details regarding the refunds were announced on April 6, which can be found here. All account adjustments pertaining to this refund process are expected to be finalized by the end of the day of April 15. After reviewing the FAQ within the announcement, students are encouraged to contact Housing and Residence Life for questions regarding housing refunds and Campus Dining for questions about dining adjustments.

Another major policy change was set on March 31 when UNCW announced it would implement a case-by-case pass/fail undergraduate grading policy for the 2020 Spring semester. The policy is set to go into place after the end of this semester when grades have been reported on May 11. Students will have until June 30 to opt for any eligible courses to be changed to a pass/fail grading.

The list of courses exempted from the potential pass/fail grading system is currently unavailable but is expected to be released soon for students and their academic advisors to consult. UNCW also assures that future transcripts referencing this semester will bear a note indicating the semester’s disruption due to campus’ COVID-19 pandemic emergency response. Further information about the pass/fail grading policy can be found here.

As always, all UNCW students are encouraged to stay in contact through the university’s social media accounts and email alerts, as well as the university’s dedicated coronavirus website, as the situation continues to develop.