Pomona College faculty decided today that, due to the disruption caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, all students will be graded on a Pass/PNR (Pandemic No Record)/Incomplete basis for the spring semester of 2020. This decision comes alongside the recent endorsement by the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC), Pomona’s student body government, in favor of a universal Pass/Incomplete grading policy.
Pomona will be joining Harvard, Stanford, and other institutions in adopting this measure. Pomona’s adoption of a universal Pass/No Credit policy puts it at odds with Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps in this, leaving Claremont McKenna College the final member of the Claremont Consortium that has yet to decide how grading will be conducted for the spring 2020 semester.
The Pomona faculty’s decision comes in spite of a proposed amendment to allow students to opt into letter grades. Under this earlier proposal, students would have been graded on a P/PNR/I basis by default, but would have been able to choose to accept letter grades if they felt they were in a position to do so. Other amendments called for a universal A policy.
Prior to the decision, Pomona faculty had struck down an option calling for A/No Record/Incomplete grading, but due to procedural confusion, were forced to reconsider A/No Record-Incomplete grading two days after having voted down the proposal for the first time. This option was closest to ASPC’s original proposal, which called for grading on a universal A/A- scale and was voted down by faculty early in the debate.
This story is developing and will be updated.