Last spring, UTSA utilized an optional Credit/No Credit (CR/NC) “pass/fail” grading system for all undergraduate and graduate students. UTSA understood that COVID-19 has drastically affected the ways in which we learn and that some students may be in a poor learning environment, therefore hindering their academic progress. UTSA’s decision to adopt CR/NC last spring demonstrated their ability to empathize with their student body.

Yet, this fall, UTSA has wrongfully decided against using this system once more. UTSA students utilize the option if they need it. UTSA’s original intention last semester was to provide students with a safety net because their lives were being flipped upside down amid the pandemic. Last semester, Roadrunners were forced to move back home, with some having to spend less time getting an education and more time resolving disputes over leasing agreements. Students, faculty and staff were all forced to make the transition to remote learning in an effort to stop the spread. Countless students lost their jobs and were forced to live on unemployment benefits. Sound familiar yet? 

This fall, our student community is being faced with strikingly similar challenges as in the spring. Students are still left with uncertainty from what online curriculum has offered them. While UTSA has taken preventative measures to keep students safe, not adopting CR/NC this fall will impede the progress, and GPAs, of students, some of whom are taking heavy course loads from home during a time when Americans are still dying from COVID-19. Circumstances have hardly changed since spring, and the Student Government Association and UTSA must work to ensure that Roadrunners have peace of mind in CR/NC. 

For some students, a D- may be all they have to offer, but it shouldn’t paint them as a bad student per se. It makes them a student who gave their best effort but was held back by their living, financial and health situations. 

The UTSA SGA has the opportunity to make CR/NC a reality for students. COVID-19 has had deep implications for our campus community, and students should have the ability to maintain proficient GPAs, especially considering the circumstances the Roadrunner community is being faced with. SGA and UTSA administration must work swiftly to make certain that students’ academic needs are met with a CR/NC grading system that would relieve the austerity occurring within UTSA’s virtual classrooms.