The unanticipated wave of war encampments escalating across American college campuses has mostly been under the radar, due to administrations tactfully permitting their existence until the natural transition at the end of semesters. Columbia University differs from this approach, with President Minouche Shafik’s decision to involve the NYPD through the academic year, despite the city’s declaration of an ongoing crime wave.
The ensuing disorder and outrage among the student community have cascaded into Columbia Law School, leading Columbia Law Review and other journals to issue a statement requesting the cancellation of exams, or alternatively, moving to a mandatory pass/fail grading system. This call is grounded in the irreparable distress and disarray experienced by the student body, triggered by wide-ranging issues including police violence targeting protesting students and the intensifying discrimination on campus.
Challenges within the university’s administrative system have added to the turmoil. This has been exemplified by the recently experienced exam planning chaos where students were advised, minutes before the exam, that they could sit for it at any point during the examination period. However, this directive was later negated by the Dean, paving the way for further confusion.
The extreme step of cancelling exams should naturally not be a necessity. Yet, given the university’s apparent struggle with scheduling exams under the current conditions, this could be the right move. If this proves unfeasible, the mandate of transitioning to a pass/fail system presents a sensible, no-loss alternative, as it eliminates the substantial risk of bias in the hiring process if some students have grades while others do not.
Adopting a compulsory pass/fail grading system should not stir controversy. It indeed forms a robust solution given the scheduling blunders and the turmoil that has unhinged students’ preparations. While employers might experience minor uncertainty due to lack of distinctive candidate information, the possibility of receiving inaccurate results from graded exams given the existing circumstances is far greater.
Therefore, it appears that the logical solution would be to use a pass/fail marker in combination with the preceding semester’s grades to assess applicants effectively. The way in which the delicate balance between achieving academic goals and accommodating students’ well-being is handled in these tumultuous times will inevitably influence Columbia Law School’s reputation.