Courses will automatically be graded as Satisfactory/Fail this semester.

Satisfactory credits will count for majors, minors, and degree requirements. Students may choose to get a letter grade through an online form.

This marks UR’s latest response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has sickened at least 36 people in Monroe County.

The change, which encompasses both the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (AS&E) and the Eastman School of Music, was announced by emails from Dean of the College Jeffrey Runner and Dean of AS&E Faculty Donald Hall on Friday afternoon. Runner said that while all courses graded this semester as satisfactory can count for degree requirements, they will not contribute to GPAs.

Students who want any or all of their courses graded on an A-E scale this semester must submit a petition on no later than April 3. Requests on this are final, and an online platform for submitting this petition is not yet available.

In addition to the grading change, the course withdrawal deadline has been extended to April 22, and Fall 2020 registration is now scheduled for April 20. The Dean’s List has been suspended, and course withdrawals and major declarations  can now be done using an online form.

The changes come following a student push for modified grading in recent days, in light of UR’s transition to remote learning. By Friday afternoon, an SA Impact petition asking that AS&E provide all students with an A or A- in every course for the semester garnered over 1,000 signatures.

Thanks to another UR decision in the wake of a popular Impact petition, AS&E courses are slated to begin online on Monday, March 23.



Audiobooks are books and we should say so

Engage with books however you want. Don’t we have better uses for our time than to pick apart how other people take in information?

From Mourning to Fear: How the Hijacking of Social Justice Changed my Campus Experience

Promoting such incendiary language under the guise of social justice does a disservice to the cause of peace and dangerously normalizes incitement to violence.

Roachester’s new delicacy

Now, the next time you get charged by a roach after entering Simon Business School or have to play with way-too-small beetles, just scoop them up with your hand, roast them, and now you have a perfect meal to enjoy.