Good morning! I'm watching the emergency @UTAustin Faculty Council meeting this morning, where faculty will shortly vote on a resolution that would extend pass/fail and Q-drop provisions in light of the pandemic. Follow this thread for updates!

@thedailytexan

Faculty Council Chair Anthony Brown said the Faculty Council resolution was written in response to the @UTScc, @UT_SG, and @UTGSA joint resolution.

The student governance resolution asks for a post-finals deadline to change grade status. The FC proposes a Dec. 9 deadline.

Mark Simpson, assistant vice provost and university registrar, is explaining the University's normal grading policies—which apply this semester.

These policies include changes to class status is based on a mid-semester deadline, which was Oct. 29 this year.

Simpson is now explaining the FC proposal, which he calls "feasible" but can present "challenges" like any plan.

- Non-academic Q-drops allowed & extended through Dec. 9 (the day before finals)

Simpson said it takes 2 days to update the system to accommodate this change.

-Students can pass/fail classes thru Dec. 9, and those classes would still count towards degree reqs./prereqs./etc. if passed

One issue with feasibility, Simpson said, is that it has to be applied to all students.

Simpson said it will take about a month to work with all the audit system and make sure that pass/fail classes will count in the system.

"It's still feasible — if the decision's made soon — that we can pull this off for students," Simpson said.

- OTEs would be rescinded and replaced with a non-academic Q-drop
- All previous Q-drops would be rewritten as non-academic

Non-academic Q-drops do not count towards the 6 Q-drop limit that undergraduates have at UT.

"Timing really becomes a big deal," Simpson said.

Simpson said students would need to work diligently with advisors, and choosing pass/fail grades could impact things like med school and financial aid programs. Advisors would have a big work load.

Simpson said 16,000 Q-drops and pass/fails were processed in the spring semester — an "enormous volume" that could also be seen in the fall if the resolution passes.

Prof. Somshuvra Mukhopadhyay, who is representing the College of Pharmacy, said there has been "back and forth" over the resolutions in the college.

Mukhopadhyay asks for an amendment to the resolution –an extension of a grade change deadline beyond Dec. 9.

Simpson said pushing the grade change date could impact financial aid funds and impact student ability to register.

He said the work for an extension of the deadline would be "very very time consuming" – many staff + administrators would have to work to get this done.

Student leaders — SG Pres. Anagha Kikkeri, SG VP Winston Hung, Senate Pres. @alsassss, and Senate VP @isaaacwjames are now presenting in support of grading policy changes.

J.R. 20-05 — the student governance petition for grade changes — had nearly 11,000 UT student signees.

Peer institutions with opt-in P/F policies similar to those proposed.

From the student leader presentation:

The student leaders said a P/F expansion would help alleviate equity issues:

- Students w/ disabilities & medical conditions are disadvantaged in the online setting
- Students & faculty are tired

. @alsassss presents final student leader notes:

- Student governance orgs can help distribute information in light of the intense workload advisors may face if the resolution may pass
- Students should know where they stand academically before making a grade change decision

Eric Hirst, associate dean for academic affairs in McCombs, said program leads in McCombs "are generally against this proposal."

He said their reasoning: We should distinguish between the spring 2020 semester when COVID was an unexpected disruption, and fall 2020/spring 2021.

"This fails to recognize the efforts and trade offs that have been made by many students who believe they needed to work for a letter grade," Hirst said.

It serves as a disincentive to study and pull together learning as finals approach, he said.

After receiving guidance from his college, Mukhopadhyay said he will not be proposing the amendment to extend the Dec. 9 change deadline.

ECE Professor Brian Evans, who helped author the spring 2020 grade changes and supports the fall 2021 proposals, said Cockrell allocated 200 additional hours for advisors to process grade changes — something not possible this fall.

Q-drop and P/Fs from Cockrell in spring:

Some notes:

- Although SG+Senate+GSA asked for grading provision for 2020 AND spring 2021, this resolution will only provide provisions for fall
- This resolution emerged quickly, multiple professors have said
- The workload put on advisors will be difficult

In consideration of the policy, education prof. Jennifer Adair said she wants to bring up racial violence during the pandemic + the pandemic's disproportionate effects.

"Students of colors are not just facing the pandemic, they're facing a lot of issues right now," Adair said.

History professor Alberto Martinez now raising mental health issues, pointing to a large amount of students who indicated they were facing severe mental health difficulty in a SG+Senate survey.

"Pass/fail is what they want," Martinez said. "Q-drop does not solve the problem."

Pass/fail count from Simpson:

- 4,033 students with 1+ P/F in spring 2019
- 16,070 students with 1+ P/F in spring 2020

Hirst, reading a comment verbatim from a McCombs advisor:

"The legislation says talk to your advisor, but that is not going to be a possibility if the volume of requests this spring is anywhere close to the volume of last semester," Hirst read.

Kikkeri notes the support behind the student governance joint resolution is the largest outpouring of support she's ever seen during her time in SG.

Voting will occur via an anonymous Zoom poll shortly.

A small technical difficulty: everyone in the Zoom call (including me) received the poll. Discussion is occurring about how only FC voting members should complete the poll.

BREAKING: UT Faculty Council APPROVES resolution on grading changes:
- Classes can be taken pass/fail & count towards degree if changed by Dec. 9
- Q-drops don't count towards 6-drop limit

The resolution will go to the President & Provost for final approval.

The final vote:
39 for
12 against
7 abstain

The meeting is now adjourned. Thank you for following along, and I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving week :)