Petition for Pass/Fail Grades Springs Up Amid Coronavirus and Illinois Lockdown

By Thomas Gibbons and Kanoa Ikeda-Flynn

Petition for Pass/Fail Grades Springs Up Amid Coronavirus and Illinois Lockdown

With Dominican University switching to online-classes due to the Coronavirus outbreak, it brings about a big transition for the entire Dominican community. With a statewide lockdown, there is no way to duplicate the face-to-face interaction with professors and other students in a classroom setting. 

With the large amount of uncertainty regarding  Dominican’s response to COVID-19, students who feel that the change was unsatisfactory could not have much say in how Dominican chooses to handle the situation. 

Jacqueline Ramirez, a junior at Dominican, started a petition on Friday calling for the University to opt for an optional Pass/Fail for classes. In her petition, Ramirez acknowledges the stress and anxiety that the Coronavirus has caused Dominican’s students and staff. In addition, the petition talks about the struggles that students will likely face when having to live off-campus. These struggles include having limited access to resources that are useful for classes and for studying. 

This petition, to date, has over 1,400 signatures and growing.

“I think Dominican students should have this option in order to have a fighting chance for future opportunities such as grad school and internships,” Ramirez told the Dominican Star. “My biggest concern is that we all progress through the semester like nothing’s wrong. In reality, we have students who don’t have the adequate resources to be successful from where they must live during the Coronavirus pandemic.”

 Faculty at Dominican have also found the petition to be an important step to easing the transition to online. 

Associate Professor at Dominican, Dr. Christina Perez, had this to say about the petition:

“I heard about the petition and signed it,” Dr. Perez said. “I have also written a number of letters to the RCAS Dean and to Provost.” Perez’s letters included requests for the following:

• Pass/Fail for grades for students and allowing all students to register, including students with account holds.
• Suspension of course evaluations and automatic pauses to tenure-clock for faculty.
• Paid leave for all employees who are ill or have to care for the ill.

This story will be updated