Håfa adai UOG Tritons:

Congratulations on finishing up the semester!  There certainly has been a great deal of uncertainty and disruption this semester.  Our Senior Vice President & Provost, all the deans, and I have been impressed at your ability to respond to the enormous challenges presented this semester. 

The University recognizes that some students, through no fault of your own, may not achieve the grades you could have if they had attended on-campus classes for the entire semester. Dr. Enriquez worked with the Faculty Senate, Student Government Association, and other groups to provide you with a way to minimize the impact this might have on your academic journey.

Alternate Grading Option

For each undergraduate course completed during the Fañomnåkan 2020 semester, students will have the option of replacing the letter grade earned with an alternative grade that will not affect GPA calculations.

By Graduate Studies policy, a grade of C or better is required for students to receive credit, so these alternative grades are not appropriate for graduate coursework.

The alternate grades available to undergraduates are as follows:

• Pass (P). Grades of C or better will be converted to a P, allowing the course to count as a prerequisite, any program requirement, or any other university requirement, and will allow progression to higher courses.
• Credit (CR). Grades of D will be converted to a CR, allowing the course to count for certain general education courses or as pre-requisites in certain (but not many) majors.
• No Credit (NC). Grades of F will be converted to NC, which means the student must retake the course for credit, but the GPA will not be negatively impacted.

Students will be “held harmless” by the choice to select P/CR/NC in Fañomnåkan 2020.

Choosing the alternate grading option will not negatively impact your academic journey at UOG, nor will it be a barrier to entry into subsequent courses.  For courses in which students earn a P (Pass) or CR (Credit) grade, the credits will count toward total credits earned and completed courses for financial aid purposes.

How To Exercise This Option

Your professors will enter letter grades as per their syllabus grading policies at the end of the Fañomnåkan 2020 semester. You will then have until June 1, 2020 to review their grades and seek advisement to exercise the alternate grading option. To ensure that you have considered their alternatives and the potential impacts carefully, advisement Is required to use the alternate grading option. 

Many of you will want to keep your earned letter grades to reflect your accomplishments, and it will be your personal decision whether to keep the letter grade for a course or to have it converted to the corresponding alternative grade as noted above.

Attached to this message is the Request for Alternate Grade form. You must complete one form for each course. If you have trouble finding an advisor at the end of the semester, please contact the Triton Advising Center at tac@gotritons.uog.edu.  We will post available advisors in certain programs on the university website.

While we would want this opportunity to apply to all undergraduate courses, there will be exceptions, such as when strict program degree requirements or accreditor rules prohibit it. Faculty are in contact with specific accreditation bodies to understand how these exceptions apply to UOG students, and your advisors will know how to guide you.  Students intending to attend graduate, medical, or law school also may want or need to keep letter grades.

Finally, there is not a limit to the number of courses you may choose this option, but if you feel the need to use this in every single course, please contact the Triton Advising Center as soon as possible! There must be something we can do to help you.

The Triton spirit is strong and resilient. Your faculty and the entire University community is proud of you. We have seen, and we have been moved by, your social media testimonials of coping with these problems as well as the videos and pictures celebrating your tremendous accomplishments. We hope this option helps.

Biba UOG! Biba Tritons!

 

Troy McVey, EdD, MFA

Vice Provost for Academic Excellence,
Graduate Studies, and Online Learning