TUCSON, Ariz. — The University of Arizona is giving students some leeway amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The school registrar's office sent a note to students announcing several new policies aimed at easing worries and difficulty amid the campus shutdown announced earlier this month.
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Most notable of the newly announced policies: students can switch any of their Spring 2020 classes to a pass/fail grading scale for the semester, and those classes will still count toward their program and prerequisite requirements.
The registrar is also moving the course withdrawal deadline to April 14, and that withdrawal won't go toward students' lifetime limit. In that same vein, caveats for students repeating a course in another semester have been removed for classes taken in the Spring 2020 semester.
The registrar also said the Spring 2020 semester won't count toward students' academic eligibility -- unless it improves to "eligible" status.
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Read the full outline of new policies from the Registrar's Office below:
I. Pass/Fail Grading
During the Spring 2020 term only, and at the discretion of the individual student, any course may be graded on a pass/fail basis, and these courses will count towards program requirements and satisfy future prerequisite requirements if a passing grade is earned. A student wishing to move to the pass/fail grading option must notify the registrar by the last day of class for Spring 2020. Please keep in mind that some courses taken on a pass/fail basis are constrained from being used to meet certain major requirements.
II. Course Withdrawal
The last date for a student-initiated withdrawal from a full-term class in the current term will be moved to April 14, 2020, and the units associated with withdrawn courses will NOT count towards the 18-unit lifetime maximum allowed for undergraduate students.
For non-full-term sessions, the registrar will provide similar dates. The deadline for complete withdrawal will remain the last day of class.
Note: The new deadline for individual class withdrawal occurs after you have been allowed to experience the new online modality for a few weeks. The deadline for course drops and refund period remain the same.
III. Grade Replacement Opportunity and Repeating a Course
In a future term, you may repeat any course taken during the Spring 2020 term without having this subsequent attempt count towards grade replacement opportunity (GRO) or repeat option limits.
Current University of Arizona policies stipulate that students may attempt a course no more than twice. For the purpose of grade replacement opportunity (GRO), a student may only attempt to repeat a total of 3 courses, not to exceed 10 units, and only those students who have earned fewer than 60 units may utilize the grade replacement opportunity.
Note: This policy change will not undo any previously utilized course repeat or grade replacement attempts, nor will it allow any student who is no longer eligible for grade replacement to become eligible.
IV. Undergraduate Academic Eligibility
Academic eligibility is the ability to enroll in courses at the University of Arizona; it is automatically calculated at the end of each fall and spring semester. The five undergraduate academic statuses are: eligible, academic review, academic warning, academic probation, ineligible.
The academic eligibility status of an undergraduate student at the end of the Spring 2020 term will be determined by the student’s most recent status, unless a student earns a cumulative 2.0 GPA or greater, in which case their status will become “eligible.” This will allow students to move out of the bottom four statuses if they had a “good” Spring 2020 semester or remain in their current status if the Spring 2020 semester is not helpful to their academic standing. That is, with this revised policy, a student could not move from warning to probation, nor from probation to ineligible statuses.
