Please, stop the bus(!) on adjusting academic policies
For anyone who works in higher education, is a college student, or has kids in college, your head probably hasn’t stop spinning in weeks. Changes are happening daily, and we’re all trying our best to keep it together. The generic timeline since early March includes but is not limited to:
Asking students to pack up their room “just in case” (most universities did not do this)
Extending spring break
Asking students not to return to campus for the remainder of the semester and/or assigning times when students can move out of their residence halls
Shifting to online learning the rest of the semester
Witnessing residence halls being turned into overflow housing for medical staff
The discussion of tuition reimbursement and/or partial housing reimbursements
Learning that students can opt-in to Pass/Fail with their courses, while colleges are seeing a spike in students requesting incompletes or withdrawing
A not-so-underground movement of students protesting their online learning
Finding out graduation is postponed until September
Receiving an email that summer classes are cancelled and/or all virtual
Incoming students learning that orientation is also online
This list is not all-encompassing, and it’ll probably see an additional three bullets alone by the end of this week. We can guess it might include something related to international student retention, changes in academic policies, financial aid implications, the “what ifs” around fall semester being virtual, and the terrifying topic of colleges closing altogether. From a macro lens, you can start to see why college students are struggling in all arenas of wellness right now.
My biggest concern in all of this is the sudden changes to academic policies by universities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m concerned about all the other potential issues that we may see crop up this week. I’m talking about the minor announcements to policy changes that will have colossal implications through December. We’re talking changes to prerequisites, extended withdrawal deadlines, GPA not being calculated, and suspension policies being bent. If this doesn’t scream profit-driven agenda, I don’t know does. Yes, colleges are simultaneously interested in retaining students in order to support them to graduation, but at what cost? For the student who was on track to earn (yes, I said earn!) a 0.0 GPA for the semester who would have been suspended due to their performance, may now be able to pay for another full semester of failed classes. Key word in that sentence is pay. This is an extreme example of academic performance, and yet it’s not a complete anomaly. The GPA is not what I want you to focus on, but rather the fact that this student could be paying for another semester of full tuition when they for all in tense and purposes are not capable of being a student at the moment. Thinking that student could pay for another 0.0 GPA semester has me completely sick to my stomach.
For a large university, I can see how it might be less time consuming and seen as a free hall pass to alert all students that their academic performance for Spring 2020 will not impact their overall academic standing. So just to give another example for clarity’s sake, if a student was already on academic probation (typically below a 2.0) before the start of Spring 2020, regardless of their performance this semester they’ll still on academic probation in Fall 2020. This is as opposed to being suspended, which they would have been after Spring 2020. I’m not saying every student on academic probation ends up being suspended. What I’m saying is that if a student was already on academic probation and they were on track to being suspended at the end of this semester, they won’t be because their spring term grades won’t be impacting their overall academic standing. This may not be concerning to you as a reader. Let me break is down more.
For a university of around 20,000 students, upwards of 10% of their student population is on academic probation each semester. That’s 2,000 students a semester. Depending on the university’s pre-existing policy, they may allow students to be on academic probation for one or more semesters before they suspend the student. Each university is different, but what you will most commonly find is that in order to be on academic probation a student has to have less than a cumulative 2.0 GPA. In case you aren’t aware, a 2.0 GPA is straight C’s. To clarify, to be on probation a student must be regularly earning less than straight C’s. To highlight, each of these students were admitted to said university because they met the academic requirements for eligibility to study on campus. A student who is on academic probation is not doing it on purpose. At least for me, I can think of a ton of other ways to blow money if that were the case! For a student on academic probation they typically fall within the categories of prioritizing social life over academics, or they are struggling with mental health issues (grief, anxiety, perfectionism, homesickness, trauma, roommate conflict, etc.) that is subsequently impacting their academic performance. To reiterate 2,000 students who may or may not have been on the chopping block of being academically suspended are now being invited back to pay for one more semester of college. Let that sink in.
By freezing academic standings, grades aren’t the only things that are impacted. There’s a lot at stake for every single student. It’s hard not to see that there’s a lot at stake for higher education too. Institutions are on the hook financially if their retention rate dips. What better way to hide the financial foundation cracking than by masking it with adjusted university-wide academic policies? This is all under the guise of being understanding and lenient of student struggles because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In my opinion, I think colleges and universities may need to reconsider making sweeping policy changes. I don’t know what’s worse, academically suspending a student this semester by not adjusting academic policies, or by allowing a student to pay for another semester to only being suspended after Fall with another semester of tuition piled on to their already crippling debt.
For questions or comments contact Joanna.
