AIDAN POLLARD
News Editor
To help students as they transition to online learning for the remainder of the spring semester, Academic Affairs has expanded the pass/fail option to all students and all classes.
Until May 31, students can declare pass/fail for any class, and that class’s grade will no longer hold weight in their GPA.
But it’s not as simple as taking the option for all classes and graduating unscathed.
“You have to meet all graduation requirements,” said President Dennis Hefner. “When you get a ‘pass,’ it’s my understanding that it does not affect your grade point. So if you need a grade point in order to graduate, you’d better take it as a graded class.”
While the option offers a safety net for students working through lower level classes and CCCs or Fredonia Foundations courses, seniors whose majors require a certain letter grade per class will have to take their classes again if they choose the pass/fail option. For example, on the Fredonia website, the Communications Department lists it’s GPA requirement: “Students must receive at least a C in every required course within their major. Students receiving a grade lower than a C will have the opportunity to retake the course and replace the original grade. In addition, an overall GPA of 2.5 must be achieved in these courses, which differs from the Fredonia minimum of a 2.0 GPA.”
Under the requirements of certain departments which work similarly to the Communications Department, graduating seniors cannot bail themselves out of the altered semester by taking the pass/fail option for their classes.
For example, a student with a 2.49 GPA in a communications major who decides to take the pass/fail option for all their classes would not be able to graduate with that degree, since their GPA can’t be affected by pass/fail classes.
“You get the credits, but it doesn’t affect your grade point,” said Hefner. “This is not to be a back door or anything such as that. This is merely to help students.”
Some students, however, don’t feel as though they need that help quite yet.
“The only reason you should take it is if you definitely know you can’t get through a class with a sufficient grade to pass,” said junior music education major Matthew Erman. “But even then you should know where you are and you should still work hard toward the end of the semester since we’re getting the blessing to declare [pass/fail] on May 31, after we get our final grades.”
“I don’t need it as of now,” said sport management and public relations double-major Tony Gettino. “I’ll put more thought in it after I get my final scores at the end of the year, but as of now it’s not needed.”