The following policies, with the exception of section 6 below, will apply only to the Spring 2020 semester. Section 6 will apply to the Spring 2020 semester and future semesters, unless and until the faculty votes in the future to revise it.
As adopted by the faculty on March 27, 2020, students will have the option to convert any or all of their Spring 2020 semester grades to a “pass,” as long as they earn at least a C- in the course, and can make the conversion after they see their final grade for the course.
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Consistent with our current policy, “fail” credits, but neither optional nor mandatory “pass” or “satisfactory” credits, will be computed in students’ cumulative GPAs.
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Students on academic probation after the fall 2019 semester whose spring semester grades, before or after they exercise the satisfactory/fail option, would otherwise subject them to an appealable or non-appealable dismissal, will be kept on probation through the fall 2020 semester, rather than being dismissed at the end of the spring 2020 semester.
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Students on academic probation after the fall 2019 semester will be released from probation only if their spring semester grades, BEFORE they exercise the satisfactory/fail option, would put them back into good standing. All other students currently on probation will be kept on probation through the fall 2020 semester.
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Students whose cumulative GPAs are under 2.2 at the end of the spring 2020 semester before or after they exercise any satisfactory/fail option, but who were not put on academic probation after the fall semester, will not be put on academic probation at the end of the spring 2020 semester.
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Students whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.8 and/or who are in the bottom quartile of the class at the end of their second academic semester, before they exercise any satisfactory /fail option for the spring 2020 semester, will be subject to our current requirements for additional curricular and/or academic support programming.
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Students whose cumulative GPA falls below 2.8 and/or are in the bottom quartile of the class after the end of their second academic semester will no longer be subject to our current requirements for additional curricular and/or academic support programming. The relevant rule language will be amended as follows: “Students with a cumulative grade point average under 2.8 and/or students in the bottom quartile of the class at the end of a student’s second academic semester or at any time thereafter, will be required to complete curricula and/or academic support programming.”
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There will be no changes to the mandatory means for the spring 2020 semester.
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All opt-in pass/fail grades this semester will be recorded as S/F (satisfactory /fail) and transcripts for students who attend MHSL this semester will have their transcripts permanently noted with the following explanation: “Due to COVID-19, students could opt to convert spring 2020 grades above D+ to S.”
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No student transcript will be noted with either a revised ranking after spring 2020 semester grades are entered or an indication that the student’s grades would put the student on the Dean’s List for the spring 2020 semester. Students who were ranked after the fall 2019 semester will retain that ranking for spring 2020 semester and will be re-ranked, if they are continuing students, after the fall 2020 semester. 1L students will be notified of where they ranked after the fall 2019 semester, but those rankings will not be included on their transcripts.
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Students graduating at the end of the spring 2020 semester will be awarded graduation (Latin) honors using our current criteria, with eligibility for those honors based on their final cumulative GPAs, including the spring 2020 semester grades they receive AFTER exercising the satisfactory/fail option.