Dear #HigherEd: What happened to pass/fail and flexible late policies?
In early COVID days, colleges and universities did something out of character: they tore themselves free from the death grip of toxic rigor and adopted flexible grading policies to support student learning, success, and well-being. Examples of these policies included pass/fail final grade options and incredibly flexible late policies for assignments.
From the staff/faculty standpoint, there were email chains going around with clear procedures in place for how we would all cover for each other if someone got sick or need to care for a sick loved one. There was a constant awareness at work that this was a catastrophe, and that support was the absolute priority. We started every meeting processing the chaos, crying and laughing together, and unabashedly prioritizing our shared humanity.
Then, true to character, several months later, higher ed cancelled all of these flexible policies and approaches and returned, once again, to worship at the feet of toxic rigor.
Why?
The pandemic is not over. Yesterday, the 7-day death average, per the New York Times, was 1,217. At the end of the spring term 2020, it was the virtually the same.
Whether or not you’re over it, the pandemic is not over. And not for nothing, but pandemics are a symptom of climate change, and I think which I think it’s pretty clear is only just beginning.
Why did you grant students a pass fail option in the spring 2020 term but not the fall 2021 term? Why were we accepting late assignments much more generously a year ago? What has gotten better? That we have borne this trauma for longer? That actually makes things worse.
Trauma, and yes, shockingly, global pandemics are a type of trauma, create persistent adverse effects. Something really bad happens, and it stays with us. It affects every aspect of our lives and identities. Even if the pandemic ended today, the trauma responses that many of us will be managing will last for years.
One of the things I’ve tried to talk to folks about is the idea of “stores of well-being.” When COVID first hit in March 2020, we had some well-being built up. For many people, their well-being savings account has been spent. They’re living day to day now, paycheck to paycheck, literally and figuratively.
I have worked in higher education since 2002. This is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I am seeing people working and teaching among us with symptoms of severe clinical burnout, but since it’s presenting in almost everyone I know, we just keep carrying on. What do you do when everyone’s burned out, I keep asking. No one knows.
My students and colleagues are still very much getting sick with COVID on a constant basis. People’s spouses, friends, and relatives are dying. Many of us are trying to manage chronic illnesses, in ourselves and others, in the face of a catastrophic shortfall in access to doctors, labs, and hospitals due to COVID demands.
It is unsustainable, devastating, painful, and scary. We will get through it one way or another, but what we need now is someone to see us, to see this reality, and to inject some semblance of compassion and rationality into our work.
The policies and support systems that were first implemented at the start of COVID are needed now more than ever. Bring them back.
