Hofstra University has pushed back the deadline to take any class as a pass/fail (P/F) option to Friday, May 8. The option will be available to both undergraduate and graduate students, and will only be applicable to classes for the Spring 2020 semester. However, the university recommends that graduate students check in with their academic advisers regarding the viability of the option per the accreditation standards of various graduate programs. The policy will not be applicable to students in the Maurice A. Deane School of Law or the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine.

“The University changed the pass/fail policy for the Spring 2020 semester to recognize the challenges created by this unprecedented situation, and to provide our students with additional flexibility as they make the transition to online learning and adjust to life away from campus,” said Assistant Vice President of University Relations Karla Schuster.

In the past, the Office of Academic Records and Registrar declared that students with a bulletin year of Fall 2004 or later may not take P/F courses for the purpose of satisfying distribution requirements. Until now, this qualifier has been in effect for 16 years. The university made an exception to this rule for the Spring 2020 semester due to COVID-19, now allowing students to elect a P/F option for any course of their choosing while continuing to fulfill graduation requirements.

Other universities in the New York area have also been weighing the pros and cons of mandatory P/F courses for their students. Layla Elkoulily, the executive vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA) at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), has actively been gathering student opinions on the matter through social media.

“The administration wanted to ensure that the decision they made provided students with the option to choose what they wanted. That is why the school implemented an optional pass/fail system,” Elkoulily said. “There are students who lean toward an optional P/F system because it provides them the opportunity to improve their grades and be a more competitive college applicant.”

Other students, she said, even ones that had been doing well in school, felt that the mandatory P/F option was the most fair. “Other students who are taking care of sick parents, live in abusive homes, have no space to focus and study, have a lack of resources and deal with other circumstances want mandatory pass/fail as well,” she noted.

Elkoulily also mentioned that many students planning to apply to graduate programs can be at a disadvantage when the P/F option is not made mandatory by their university. She believes students should not be penalized for circumstances out of their control, and advocates for mandatory P/F courses so that all students have an equal opportunity to maintain good academic standing and still have a fair chance of getting into graduate programs. For now, P/F classes remain optional at NYIT.

Columbia University, however, has made P/F classes mandatory for its nearly 35,000 total students, along with Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. Though many students support Columbia’s move, others have expressed disapproval and would rather they remain optional. As of April 6, 1,954 students signed a petition on Change.org to make P/F classes optional rather than mandatory.

Deval Mehta, a post-baccalaureate student at Columbia University, feels that overall the university has done a good job dealing with the changes that have come with the pandemic, but does not agree with mandatory P/F classes. “P/F, with some allowances made regarding graduation and such, is beneficial for the many students who are having trouble adjusting to these new circumstances or those who are now in unworkable environments, but I would have liked for it to have been a choice. There shouldn’t be any repercussions for students who elect to do their coursework pass/fail this semester, but there are those of us would have preferred a letter grade, for a variety of reasons, who no longer have that option.”

Hofstra, like NYIT, has not elected to make P/F courses mandatory. In order to officially elect a course as a P/F option, a form must be filled out and emailed to the Office of Academic Records and Registrar as an attachment. This form can be found here for undergraduate students and here for graduate students.

“I think the university made the right decision by extending the P/D/D-/F option. That will give students who are under tremendous stress the opportunity to assess their performance before having to make that choice,” said Warren Frisina, the dean of the Hofstra University Honors College and professor of religion. “What’s most important, however, is giving students time to consult with their adviser and teachers, because they sometimes over and underestimate where they stand. [It’s] better to be sure about that before making a choice one way or the other.”