At this week’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, Thomas Wilson, Senate member and Academic Affairs Chair, introduced a resolution to request consideration for a pass/fail option for the fall.

Resolution 02.10.06.20 or ‘A Resolution to Request Consideration by the Administration, Faculty and Staff for Introducing a Pass/Fail Option for Courses Completed During the Fall 2020 Semester’ seeks to have the UNC Wilmington (UNCW) administration consider another pass/fail option since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is still ongoing and affecting students.

Resolution 02.10.06.20 by Veronica Wernicke on Scribd

“ACKNOWLEDGING, UNCW administration, faculty, staff and students have all shown a continuation of their unwavering levels of adaptability, and commitment to the success of the students of UNCW; and UNDERSTANDING, that our students must quickly acclimate to unexpected hardships in their lives as a result of COVID-19, including but not limited to: changes in place of residence, redistricted access to necessary technology required for online class completion, financial instability and many other unforeseen complications,” as stated in the resolution.

A pass/fail option was previously offered for the spring 2020 semester when COVID-19 first started affecting the United States. 

Pass/fail allows students to receive the credit hours for a course while receiving a “P” grade for any class they receive a D- or above. Pass marks do no affect a student’s GPA, however, “F” marks do and are calculated as an f letter grade. Pass/fail marks are also chosen by students after their courses have been graded normally and submitted. 

The resolution calls upon UNCW’s administration to offer a pass/fail option no later than Jan. 8, 2021 on a class by class basis.

When asked at the meeting, Wilson said that he is unsure of the likelihood this will pass. 

“I did discuss this with the chairman of the Faculty Senate, Dr. Nathan Grove, and he said that honestly, his responses from faculty just in informal conversation have also been very mixed,” Wilson said. “Some faculty are like, sure, why not, some faculty just don’t think that it’s very necessary right now they worry that it could loosen other stuff. I gave him some facts and figures and some different data that I got from other schools, though, and he stayed firm in, I have no idea how this is going to go either”

So, while Wilson believes the decision is still up in the air, he also said that presenting this resolution will mean a lot to the Faculty Senate as well as general UNCW faculty.

The resolution was approved by the Senate with 24 yays, one nay and zero abstentions. The resolution has been emailed to its respective mandates.

“I wanted to clarify first that this does not mean students immediately have the availability to choose pass/fail for this semester,” Wilson wrote. “Immediately after the resolution was signed, it was sent to the Mandates, most of which work in our university’s administration, so they are aware. This resolution represents the opinion of the student body and works as an encouragement to the university to implement change.”