Temple students can take one course for credit or no credit

Updated at 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 6

Temple University undergraduates will have the opportunity to have one of their Fall 2020 semester courses graded for credit or no credit, wrote JoAnne Epps, vice president and provost, in an email to students Thursday.

The decision comes in response to a request from Temple Student Government due to the “challenging times in which we find ourselves,” Epps wrote.

Temple allowed students to take courses for credit or no credit in Spring 2020 as in-person learning was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Temple News reported.

The university plans to send additional details regarding the fall grading plan shortly, according to Epps’ email. 

Student Body President Quinn Litsinger was pleased with the announcement, a product of weeks of negotiation, he said. However, TSG had advocated for the credit or no credit option to be offered for all classes as it had in Spring 2020, he added.

“Students should have had the opportunity to determine all their courses to be credit or no credit” Litsinger said. “However, there were university concerns regarding maintaining academic integrity and things of that nature.”

In making its decision, Temple wanted to strike a balance between maintaining concerns of both students’ mental and academic well being, wrote Ray Betzner, a spokesperson for the university, in an email to The Temple News.

Additionally, the circumstances of this semester are different from those of Spring 2020, Betzner wrote.

“In the spring of 2020, there was a major disruption to the spring semester and all courses pivoted to online in the middle of the term,” Betzner wrote. “This fall, the majority of classes have been online throughout the semester with no disruption.”

Litsinger did not yet say whether the university should offer the accommodation in Spring 2021.

“No one knows what the spring is going to look like as it’s just a tumultuous period in general,” Litsinger said. “We made the case for this based on student mental health issues, student financial issues and a lot of things that have led to classes not being the number one priority in a lot of students eyes.”