To whom this may concern,

I understand that we are in a global crisis, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. A virus that originated from Wuhan, China as early as December of 2019 has infected and/or killed hundreds of thousands. If someone would have told me even a month ago that the world would've looked like this in the present day, I probably would've called you a crazy person!

As of late, the University of South Florida moved to transition all courses to remote instruction for the remainder of the spring semester. Many people are now circulating petitions for an assorted number of colleges and universities. The petition for the University of South Florida can be referenced here.

I write in support of this petition. I have already struggled immensely through the duration of the school year with upper-level mathematics courses and my share of Business Law. Throughout most of this time, I have worked to support myself. I worked at H&M for the majority of the year until I earned a paid internship at The Dawson Academy for a sales development position for my future career. My internship at the time of writing this is in great question and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Not long ago was I working at H&M, whom I have learned is compensating their employees during the time that their stores are closed. I do not rely on my parents to pay for my bills and for my newfound job to be a question mark not even a month in is extremely distressing.

Students like myself have a lot to worry about right now. It should be known that not all students can complete their studies without having to spend some time at work trying to squeeze out a sense of income. There have been weeks at a time where I, myself, was working around 40 hours a week at H&M to support myself and pay for my bills. As of late, I decreased my work time after being able to put money away to focus on my studies and shift my attention toward internship opportunities. Not all students have the ability to do that, and I'm sure others have been in just as bad or worse situations that I have had to put myself through.

Look, adjusting to remote instruction is not easy for both students and staff. There is a large swath of especially staff members who for the most part are not the most experienced technologically. They are going to have to adjust, as are students. Let's make this easy on everyone and implement a pass or fail option in schools until they reopen to person-to-person. Passing students will earn a 4.0 and failing will earn 0. We can put an asterisk next to those marks earned during this time, citing the pandemic. No one is going to forget about this for the foreseeable future.

Grading averages will go down, which will in turn affect staff member's overall class averages. At the end of the day, it wouldn't be an accurate representation of the hard work and dedication that all of us have exerted. Pass/Fail, for many students, will be the answer to some of their problems.

It is not a time to be extremely picky with grading. Let's not penalize people in such a sensitive situation. Leave the option open for everyone to switch to this system.