Message to Faculty from Faculty Senate President Jake R. Fox, Ph.D. and Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph P. Scartelli, Ph.D.

Dear Faculty:

As we complete final preparations for tomorrow’s official launch of online courses for all students, we are reaching out to provide information regarding the grading system for the Spring 2020 semester. This is an issue and question that practically all our sister institutions across the country are investigating in an effort to be as fair as possible to our students under these unprecedented conditions.

Over the past few days, the Academic Affairs Leadership Team, in collaboration with the Office of the Registrar, has been examining the traditional letter grading system with a possible opt-in “pass/fail” mechanism for the current Spring 2020 semester only. After thoughtful analysis and significant deliberation, a final decision has been made to permit a one-time exemption from the traditional grading system and replace it with an alternate grading system employing a voluntary opt-in to the pass/fail platform.

The Office of the Registrar and Division of Information Technology will establish a process by which students can confirm their choice of a traditional letter grade or request the pass/fail option. A deadline date for students to choose the option to convert to pass/fail grading will be determined shortly. This option only applies to undergraduate students as graduate students will continue to receive letter grades and will not have a pass/fail option available.

We also wish to take this opportunity to thank you and acknowledge the exceptional last-minute preparations all of you are undertaking to provide the highest quality instruction our students deserve and have come to expect. We encourage you to regularly visit the Keep Teaching webpage at www.radford.edu/keep-teaching as new content is added on a regular basis. Please know that we pledge our continued support to you as we educate and support all students in this new environment for our University and during a difficult time for our society!


Sincerely,