bipoc

GHAZI | Silence Is Participation Too

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Whoever first said to think before you speak evidently never took a course that graded their participation. Before I came to Cornell, I dreamed of college classrooms with endless conversation. Now, in my final semester, my learning usually happens when I’m silent — truncated by empty comments born from the hollow frames of other empty comments. 

A word salad of unprofound buzzwords emerges when an unprovocative reading meets a room of seasoned skimmers who yearn for an A. Participation may count for 25 percent or more of a final grade, leading to a performance to cushion it. Participation for the sake of participation wastes tuition dollars, time and a professor’s expertise. We must swap our limited definition of participation for one that rewards silence, encourages listening and steers us to material that cues discussion on subjects worthy of contention.

Columns

BERNSTEIN | A Plea to Professors: Give an A for Participation

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This piece is a plea to professors: Keep the participation grade on your syllabus if you otherwise would, but don’t bother grading it. Give an A. Some of your students need it, all of them deserve it, and it really is your duty to do so. Entering our third semester of the COVID-19 era and the second of the school year, the most obvious academic takeaway for students and teachers alike is clear: Online school sucks. I know that’s a cold take, but it’s painfully true. Although it has great benefits of spreading information and making an education more accessible, virtual school just can’t compare to the real thing.

Columns

YAO | Bring Back Opt-In S/U

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Last semester, Cornell implemented an opt-in S/U grading policy, where students had until the end of the semester to switch any class to S/U — even if the course did not previously offer it as a grading option. Furthermore, courses where students received a satisfactory grade could be used to satisfy major or minor requirements. In doing so, the University recognized the need for flexibility and solicitude during a year where we saw the world as we knew it fall apart. Some of that empathy might come in handy this semester as well. This fall, Cornell chose to revert to standard grading practices, implying that students should treat the semester the same manner they treated every other year.

Columns

GUEST ROOM | Sorry, We Have to Defy Capitalism to Install the Most Ethical Grading System

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We are facing an unprecedented dilemma. For the first time in United States history, we are shutting down all our social institutions, ranging from healthcare facilities to education. Within that, there are groups of people who are facing incomprehensible calamities like the death of parents or crippling hunger. Of course, draconian-style, individualistic management is prevalent in the U.S.’s history of dealing with social issues, and the majority of Cornell’s population favors that style. As a result of capitalistic ideals and a characteristically false sense of meritocracy, many faculty want to maintain harsh grades, students want to profit from panicked change and many people are fighting to marginalize students facing intense hardship.

Student Assembly

Student Assembly Calls for Universal S/U Grading

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The Student Assembly passed an amended resolution expressing support for a universal satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading scheme for Cornell students. With the amendments, the proposal to pass all students effectively becomes a blanket pass/fail grading system, only changing the necessary grades to receive a “satisfactory” grade.