SGA released a petition Monday for students to sign if they are in favor of a P/D/F grading format for this semester.

Within the first hour of the petition being shared, it had already reached half of the goal of 1,000 signatures. The goal was then increased to 5,000 signatures, which the petition is on track to reach.

SGA President Garrett Edmonds started this petition to be shared with WKU students. Edmonds explained why he felt students needed a P/D/F grading format option for this semester.

“This semester has been especially challenging,” Edmonds said. “Although the plans for in-person learning have remained, the challenges of being a student during the COVID-19 pandemic have been unexpectedly difficult.”

Edmonds also gave specific reasonings for the difficulties students have faced this semester, such as not having a consistent schedule, students having to quarantine, or certain classes not being able to adapt to online learning.

“With students having different course modalities (in-person, online, and hybrid), it is very hard to create a consistent course schedule,” Edmonds said. “Some students may be all online, some may be all in-person, but the challenges begin to arise when students are placed in quarantine. Without an alternative learning policy, students placed in an in-person course must put their in-person classes on hold, unless a Zoom is offered by that specific professor. However, there is no policy that professors are required to do this, and several of the classrooms at WKU are not set up for this style of learning.”

He also mentioned this will help eliminate any additional stress put on students who are worried about their G.P.A or grades.

“Students should be allowed to finalize an opt-in request after finals week and final grades are in,” Edmonds said. “So it is not penalizing the students if they manage to do better than expected and are happy with their letter grade. This will allow students to continue pushing through this semester but not have the additional stress associated with GPA and finalized grades.”

Debra Murray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @debramurrayy