KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A petition to change the University of Tennessee's grading scale to a pass-or-fail system got more than 4,000 signatures Wednesday afternoon, after it began the day before.
The organizer is Ben Campbell, according to the petition's main webpage. The petition says that student schedules have been changed and that students have faced several difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also acknowledges that UT worked to switch several classes to a virtual environment and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In the petition, organizers said that some professors struggled to setup in a virtual environment and that students aren't learning as well as in traditional settings.
The petition asks for university administrators to give staff the power to give students an option to switch classes to a pass/fail grading scale, instead of a traditional grading scale.
The University of Tennessee recently announced that it adjusted its spring semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes will start a week later on Jan. 20 and Spring Break was canceled, to limit student travel. Almost all classes at the school are held at least partially online.
