Our undergraduate committee came to this decision after thoroughly discussing the possible outcomes of temporarily changing these long-standing requirements.

 

For Pre-Comm students: Students intending to major in Communication CANNOT take any pre-major course (COMM 1, COMM 87/PSTAT 5A/PSTAT 5LS, COMM 88, COMM 89) for the P/NP grading option. You MUST take these classes for a letter grade and meet a 3.0 pre-major GPA to be eligible for the Communication major.

 

For Comm students: Students CANNOT take any Upper-Division Comm course (or pre-approved elective course from another department) for the P/NP grading option and earn credit toward the major. All courses taken for your major requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

It is the opinion of the committee that allowing P/NP units to count toward the pre-major or major requirements could end up causing more harm than help to students. In the pre-major, students often need the opportunity for more letter grades to meet the 3.0 pre-major GPA requirement. In the upper-division, courses taken for a letter grade in which the student earns any grade higher than an F would earn units toward the 40 required units. Students who choose the P/NP grading option and earn a grade of C- or below will earn a "NP" and will not earn units toward the major requirements. It is the opinion of the committee that students are more likely to benefit by taking courses for letter grades.

 

In addition to this, the grading option deadline for Spring quarter has been extended to the last day of instruction, which allows students to change the grading option for courses with optional grading. This might be beneficial to some who find themselves with a final grade of C- or below, who can still opt for a NP to keep the course from harming their GPA. If students earn a NP on their first attempt of a course (in courses that allow this grading option) they may still have the option to repeat the course for a letter grade in the future.