The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 4 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on December 4, 2020.
Emma G. Overton ’21
Editor-in-Chief and News Editor
While temporary changes were made to the Lake Forest College Pass/Fail Policy for the spring 2020 semester due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, no such changes to the policy were in effect for the fall 2020 semester. Student Government sought to change the policy via a letter to the Curricular Policies Committee that was circulated throughout the student body. As a result of their efforts, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Student Andrea Conner announced a change in policy via email on the evening of December 3.
The changes to the Lake Forest College Pass/Fail Policy during the spring 2020 semester were outlined in a March 31, 2020 email from Conner. The temporary changes included that “[a]ny courses taken pass-fail in the Spring 2020 semester shall be exempted from the maximum of 4.0 credits of Ps that can appear on a student’s transcript. Departmental restrictions on pass-fail grades for major courses shall be waived for any courses taken pass-fail in the Spring 2020 semester,” as well as the provision that “[a]‘Pass’ grade in a Spring 2020 course shall automatically satisfy any minimum letter grade requirement for prerequisite courses.” Finally, the policy was changed so that “all courses for Spring 2020 will initially be P/F. Following our regular P/F procedures, every faculty member will award a letter grade to each student in their courses; students may look at the grade they received in each of their courses and decide if they want to revert to the letter grade, or leave the P on their transcript.”
However, these changes did apply to the fall 2020 semester. In an interview with Stentor staff via email, Student Government President Grace Verb ’22 explained why Student Government advocated for a change in policy for the fall 2020 semester.
Verb noted that the Pass/Fail Policy in effect prior to December 3 was that “a course taken for a GEC [General Education Curriculum requirement] may be taken pass-fail, but courses within a major/minor are subjective to the restrictions set by the department. This can limit the number of pass-fails an individual may take, as well as if a ‘pass’ qualifies for a prerequisite.”
She further explained that the letter “urge[d]the College, through a faculty vote and the Curricular Policy Committee, to adjust the current pass/fail policy. In light of COVID-19, the aspects of being a remote semester, as well as the many life factors that impact a student’s life, we call for the policy to be more supportive of the student body and similar to the changes made in Spring 2020.”
According to the text of the letter, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Brian McCammack and Associate Dean of Faculty Scott Schappe visited the November 17 Student Government Senate meeting and answered questions about the current Pass/Fail Policy. As the letter explains, “Student Government has fielded numerous concerns from the student body regarding the current Pass/Fail Policy,” and notes that “[t]he decision-making process for the current Pass/Fail Policy did not include proper student input and, more importantly, did not take into account the extenuating life factors that students, both traditional and non-traditional, are dealing with on a daily basis that impair their ability to learn and participate in the academic setting at their full potential.”
The letter asked the “College, through the Curricular Policy Committee and a favorable vote from Faculty members, change the Pass/Fail Policy for the Fall 2020 semester, as well as any future semesters impacted by COVID-19 . . . [to]be expanded to include the following: [t]hat departmental restrictions on pass-fail grades for major courses shall be waived for any courses taken pass-fail in the Fall 2020 semester [and][t]hat a ‘Pass’ grade in a Fall 2020 course shall automatically satisfy any minimum letter grade requirement for prerequisite courses.”
As of December 1, according to Verb, the letter “received 418 signatures (Class of 2021 – 95, Class of 2022 – 123, Class of 2023 – 99, Class of 2024 – 101).” She explained that the letter “ha[d]been submitted to the Curricular Polic[ies]Committee and they will be bringing it to the faculty for the monthly faculty meeting on December 2.”
In an email to students on December 3, Conner stated, “[i]n response to concerns championed by Student Government about departmental policies for courses taken Pass/Fail (P/F), the Curricular Policies Committee (CPC) and the Dean of Faculty office have been working with departments on relaxing P/F restrictions for this COVID-impacted semester. The entire faculty discussed this matter at its recent meeting, and Student Government President Grace Verb also addressed the faculty.”
Conner further noted the policy change, stating, “[e]ffective for the fall 2020 semester, nearly all departments and programs with P/F restrictions have made temporary changes to relax their policies; this allows departments to accept P grades in courses required for the major or minor. In most cases, the underlying grade must be at least a C or C-. Those departments with no restrictions on P/F courses will continue to have no restrictions.”
Editor’s note: The December 3 email from Conner includes an attached table showing each department or program and their P/F policy for fall 2020.
The departments having relaxed or no restrictions account for “more than 92% of all the College’s declared majors,” according to Conner, with exceptions being Education and Music Education, “which still require letter grades due to State of Illinois licensure requirements.”
As a result of the policy change, the Curricular Policies Committee decided to extend the Pass/Fail deadline from December 4 until December 11, while the deadline to withdraw from a course remains unchanged as December 4 at 5 p.m. Central Time.
Additionally, Conner’s email noted that “the faculty will vote during the late afternoon of December 10 on a proposal to additionally [emphasis added]extend that P/F deadline until January 29.”
Commenting on Conner’s announcement, Verb noted, “I would like to thank the hard work done by all the Senators within Student Government for their work pushing this initiative through, the student body for utilizing Student Government as an advocate for them, and the faculty for making the choice to support students.”
