Fall 2020 Critical Grading Policy Update

Overview of New Policy

On December 9th, 2020, the faculty of the CUNY School of Law voted to amend the Fall 2020 grading basis. The faculty voted to:

Maintain the letter grade system, whereby faculty will award letter grades of A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, and F;
Add an opt-in for a grade of credit (CR) to replace any letter grade, after grades have been released to students (On or around January 6th). Specifically, any grade of A through D can be converted to CR; There are no restrictions on the number of class or type of course (both electives and required courses can be taken for CR).
A final course grade of F cannot be converted to CR or a passing grade, though it may be converted to a grade of No Credit (NC), in which case it will not factor into a student’s grade point average;
Suspend CUNY Law School’s current CR/NC policy for Fall 2020.
- Note that the decision to select CR/NC instead of a letter grade for courses during the Fall 2020 semester will not count towards the 4 elective courses that students are permitted to take for a grade of CR/NC under the Law School’s traditional CR/NC policy.

Students must elect to change their letter grades to a CR/NC by 11:59 PM on January 13, 2021. Students graduating in January 2021 (after having completed their coursework in the Fall 2020 semester), must make their selections by January 11, 2021.

Process

1Ls: 1L students will make their selections via a survey on TWEN which will be sent out at a later date.

Upper-Level Students: The majority of upper-level students (2Ls, 3Ls, and 4Ls) will use CUNY First to opt to take grades for CR/NC. However, one exception will be that the upper-level students who are electing to change grades of A or A- to Cr will make their selections via TWEN as well.

Information regarding this process is forthcoming.

Requests made after 11:59 PM on January 13, 2021, will not be honored. Once a student requests a grade to be changed to CR/NC, that decision cannot be reversed.

Advising

Students are encouraged to reach out to their faculty advisor or the Office of Academic Affairs before selecting CR/NC. Associate Dean Allie Robbins can be reached at allie.robbins@law.cuny.edu and Assistant Dean Ryan Dooley can be reached at ryan.dooley@law.cuny.edu.

Read information regarding the CUNY University CR/NC policy.

If you have any questions, please contact Dean Robbins or Dean Dooley.

An important note from Career Planning

Your decision to have your letter course grade reported as CR is impactful and highly personal. Whether the CR option is the right one for you will depend on your unique background and circumstances. If you do exercise your right to apply the CR option, we advise you to take a screenshot of the letter grade and keep it in a safe place so that it is available to you if you need it.

Here’s a list of considerations to help structure your deliberations. We encourage you to speak to Academic Affairs and Career Planning if you need to hash things out.

What are your reasons for using the CR option? If your decision to opt for CR is taken to remain in good academic standing, then employment-related concerns are secondary.
Who are the employers you hope to work for? Some employers (e.g., some city, state and federal government agencies, government honors programs, federal judges, and law firms,) require letter grades while other employers, such as legal service agencies, either don’t require or emphasize grades or even consider them all in their hiring decisions. Moreover, some employers may want to see your letter grades in courses related to their area of practice. For example, criminal defender offices may want to review your letter grades in criminal law, criminal procedure, and evidence but not in unrelated courses.
Related to the above factor, which employers you are planning to apply to in the next few months, and which employers do you plan to apply to in a year or two from now? Will the CR option affect your ability to be a competitive candidate for a position now or in the future?
Will the CR suggest that you did worse than the actual letter grade received in the course? For example, consider the case of a CR being used to mask a B-. An employer could very well construe the CR as masking a below B- grade.
Do you need letter grades because your transcript shows no letter grades from any prior law school academic term (due to grading policy and pandemic) to show to an employer that you are at least an average student in law school? This is a relevant question for 2L-FT and 2L-PT.
Are any of the professors offering to write detailed letters of recommendations or narratives to indicate a textured description of how you performed in their course? These evaluations could ameliorate not having a letter grade reported.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this policy apply to any semester other than Fall 2020?
This policy applies only to courses taken during the Fall 2020 semester.

What is the purpose of the Fall 2020 Credit/No Credit Grading Policy?
This policy was designed to provide students with a high level of flexibility while also safeguarding the quality of their academic experience and postgraduate pursuits.

Will all course grades automatically be converted to a Credit/No-Credit option? When will this conversion happen? If students need to decide, how will they do so?

No, course grades will not automatically convert to Credit/No Credit. The change is optional, at the student’s discretion.
Students will have until 11:59 PM on January 13th to elect Credit/No Credit.
Additional information about the logistics of this selection will be forthcoming.

Can students elect the Credit/No Credit option for individual courses?
A student can opt to take the Credit/No Credit option for all, some, or none of their graded classes for Fall 2020

Are there circumstances or conditions in which a request would be denied, or a student would be ineligible for this option? Can a program prohibit the use of the Credit/No Credit option?
Students will not be denied the right to opt-in to receive a Credit/No Credit grade for a course that applies toward their degree. A grade of Credit/No Credit may not be acceptable to licensing, accreditation, or other bodies external to CUNY. Students should consult with their program advisors or the external body prior to making the decision to elect Credit/No Credit.

Does this policy apply to any semester other than the one in progress?
This policy currently applies exclusively to courses taken during the Fall 2020 semester.

Will this policy be published in the Handbook of each campus?
Yes, every CUNY campus handbook will be updated with the Policy on Credit/No Credit for students, faculty, and staff.

Is the decision to convert course grades to the Credit/No Credit option reversible during the 20 business days following the University’s final grade submission deadline?
Once a student chooses to convert course grades to the Credit/No Credit the decision is final.

Grades & GPA

How will the Credit/No Credit grades be calculated into the grade point average?
Neither the CR nor the NC is included in the calculation of the GPA. The CR grade will allow the student to earn credit (for credit-bearing courses) but is not factored into the GPA. If the student elects an NC grade in place of an F then it is not factored into the GPA, but the student will not earn the credit. A student should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of electing the Credit/No Credit option, particularly on matters related to graduation, professional licensure requirements

Will a grade of CR at one CUNY institution transfer to another CUNY institution?
Yes, a course with a grade of CR earned at one CUNY institution will transfer to another CUNY institution. There is no exception to this.

Does this policy impact ePermit/Study Abroad grades?
The policy applies to all courses, even taken via CUNY-to-CUNY ePermit/Study Abroad, in the Fall 2020 semester.

Will a Fall 2020 hold or stop prevent a student from selecting the Credit/No Credit option?
Stops and holds will not have an impact on a student’s ability to select the Credit/No Credit option.

Does this policy apply to a course where a student has already earned any version of the W grades on their record for Fall 2020 semester?
If a student has a version of the W grade (W, WN, WA, WD) on their record for a course for the Fall 2020 semester, this option does not apply to that course.

Will this interfere with the number of Pass/Fail/No Credit grades that a student can utilize after the Fall 2020 semester which is dependent on local campus policy?
These grades will not be included in the total number of non-letter grade courses a student may take as per the existing campus policy.

If unexpected issues arise around Credit/No Credit implementation, does there exist a process to ensure that they are addressed?
Each campus has a grades appeals process that can be invoked if issues arise because of the Credit/No Credit policy.

Credit/No Credit Opt-in

When will I be able to opt-in for Credit/No Credit Option?
Students will be able to elect this option after their class grades have been posted in CUNYfirst by their instructor on or around January 6, 2021.

What will this look like on my transcript?
The grade glossary, attached to each transcript, will be updated to include a notation denoting that Fall 2020 grades of CR or NC, were earned during a major emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If a student’s grade is not submitted or posted in time for them to select the Credit/No Credit option, will the student be allotted more time?
Campus Registrars will be able to assist any student with late grade submissions and or any issue with Credit/No Credit policy, on a case-by-case basis

I graduated at the end of Summer or I have already graduated. Will I able to use Credit/No Credit option?
Once a degree is conferred and a student has graduated, changes to an academic record, including grade change due to Credit/No Credit option, cannot be made.