As COVID-19 spreads through our communities, we call on the Cornell administration to prioritize educational equity, student health, and community wellbeing by adopting a Universal Pass (UP) system for Spring 2020.

Some of our peer institutions (MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Stanford) have already adopted mandatory pass/fail policies for Spring '20.

Since Cornell has continually stressed its commitment to nondiscrimination in education, it is vital for us to demonstrate how graded online courses burden those of us who are uniquely and severely affected by these circumstances, as well as the student body as a collective.

We understand that this may seem like a drastic measure for some students, but we need to understand that any non-universal plan will actively discriminate against the most marginalized students, like those who do not have internet access, who have sick relatives, or who live internationally.

We need to keep them in the forefront of our minds at this tough time.

Sign on and support equitable grading at Cornell!