Students debate credit or no credit options as semester comes to an end

Kylie Elwell, Staff Reporter

The Office of the Provost extended the deadline for the credit / no credit option with a third window from May 1 to May 15. Grades are available to students by April 30, so this gives students two weeks to see their grade and then choose if they would like to pursue the credit option. This was updated from a March 31st deadline to make this decision.

Student Senate President, Eric-John Szczepaniak said, “Student Senate was able to successfully lobby to extend the availability of this option. . . This allows folks to continue in their studies and then evaluate if it makes sense to seek credit after they have seen their grades”.

In addition, the University is going to delay the final installment of the payment deadline from March 20 until April 24, the end of the semester. This is for any student that is on the deferment tuition payment plan and the change was made due to the financial stresses placed upon students because of the ongoing pandemic. This gives students the opportunity for more time to pay their tuition and fees, since many of them were laid off from their jobs.

“I did not do credit/no credit,” said Senior GVSU student Abbey VanDongen. “Part of this reason is because I will soon be applying to DPT (Physical Therapy) schools and they do not accept it for pre-requisite classes”

Many students didn’t choose to take the credit/no credit option as of now, since they felt that they were doing good enough in their classes to not need it. Students who don’t plan on going this route are still grateful for the opportunity during this time, since adjusting to a fully online class schedule.

“The process (of credit/no credit) was pretty simple. I had to fill out a form that was just a table really and I also had to sign an acknowledgement that this would mean if i get a C- or worse, then I get no credit. I had no idea that you had to write a case about why the class you are taking is something that you personally can’t handle being online, or it being online is a disadvantage to you. I thought I just had to sign a form, so I took about an hour to make a really compelling argument,” said senior Jonathan Yen.

For students that are considering the credit/no credit option after final grades are in, they have from the time final grades are put in until May 15th at 5 p.m. to submit their request for credit / no credit. There is more in-depth information about this process on the Office of Provost page on GVSU’s website.