Photo by Adobe Spark graphic created by Jennifer Ng
On April 27, an all students email was sent out detailing the plan for the pass/no pass grading system.
Because most of SOU remains primarily online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the current pass/no pass policy has been extended and will remain in place for Spring and Summer 2021. Students will be able to take more than one eligible pass/no pass course per term, and there will be no $10 grade mode charging fee, as was announced a few months prior. Students interested in changing their grading options can find details and instructions to change grade modes here.
There are some limitations to this updated policy; for example, if a class is only being offered an A-F letter grade, that grading system cannot be changed.
Initially, the pass/no pass grading system was modified at the beginning of the pandemic to help reduce stress. Students could take more than one class per term pass/no pass and could take courses pass/no pass in their major, something that never happened before the pandemic. During this time, there were be no fees for switching grade modes. Changing a Winter 2020 grade to pass/no pass would also have no overall effect on one’s GPA.
This new grading policy was applied to both Winter and Spring 2020 terms, then later for Summer and Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 terms. This policy was only to be in place during remote/online learning and would only apply to undergraduate coursework.
Students can now change to a pass/no pass option for Spring and Summer 2021. Please contact your academic advisor for more information.
