system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: If universities implement pass/fail grading, it must be mandatory.

There is going to be a wave of proposals, petitions, and maybe even protests for pass/fail grading at universities now that a few major colleges have announced they are going that route. Some are making the pass/fail grading optional. Regardless of whether the pass/fail grading system is a good idea, I think making it *optional* is a mistake. When an employer sees on your transcript that you opted into a pass/fail grading system, regardless of your actual reason for doing so, some will assume it was becasue you were doing poorly in the class. You could potentially explain to them that you had difficulties with distance learning, but you would have to get to the point of direct communication first, which in some applications is not easy.

Certainly employers (and graduate programs, medical schools, etc...) know that spring 2020 transcripts will look funky, but the other two options (keep letter grades or mandatory pass-fail) are better in this regard. If you keep letter grades employers can see how much your grades dipped (if at all) in response to stress, which may convey adaptability. If you have mandatory pass/fail, then its a black box whether you were doing well or poorly prior to the move to e-learning. If you have optional pass/fail however, people who have and can keep an A will keep the letter, whereas those who were doing badly, regardless of the reason, will take pass/fail if they can meet the pass cutoff. This means that the "pass" pool is a mix of good students hit hard by the circumstances and academically poor students. The A's (and maybe even B's) will always be better than the passes. I have a feeling that something is missing from this chain of reasoning, but as it stands in my mind an optional pass/fail policy would hurt the people it is trying to help.

I'm aware that this post is tangentially related to certain events which shall not be named. I would hope that the mods can recognize that the principles of this discussion also apply more generally to other types of crisis which may occur in the future either locally or nationally.

Edit: preemptively clarifed wording.
gpt
Many students are currently retaking courses in order to raise their GPA.  If pass/fail becomes mandatory all the money they spent on retaking those courses is now wasted. 

Many students need particular grades in key classes in order to meet licensure requirements. If pass/fail is mandatory (and their licensing boards don't loosen restrictions) then all of those students would need to retake those classes.  

At many institutions a grade of A, B, or C gets converted to a pass, while a grade of D or F gets converted to a fail.  Under normal conditions a grade of D still earns credit, and unless the course is for a student's major still meets the requirement.  Under mandatory pass/fail students who normally would have gotten through a requirement with a D would now have to take the class again. 

If an institution wants to offer pass/fail as an option to students, then making it mandatory would do more harm than good.