Last updated April 5, 2020
The Novel Coronavirus and the Claremont Colleges:
A Report on Student Experiences and Opinions on Grading Spring 2020
By the Data Team of 5C Students for Grade Equity*
We surveyed nearly 2,600 students at The Claremont Colleges to assess their experiences after the campuses were evacuated and to explore their opinions on various grading policies. Our opinion data show that across relevant identity categories, policies that enable grade inflation or that at least preserve the possibility of letter grades are more popular than policies that mandate universal outcomes. Our experiential data demonstrate the extent to which all students have had their semesters fundamentally overturned. We particularly highlight (1) how students have lost motivation differentially, i.e., that low-income students are more likely to note that they have lost all motivation for this semester; (2) how students have highly differential access to academic resources; (3) how international students have been particularly affected by the evacuation; and (4) how professors have responded unevenly. We explain motivation loss as attributable at least in part to changing priorities upon leaving campus, mental health challenges for many students, and difficulties that many students have faced in adjusting to online learning. Our data, we hope, can provide greater insight into students’ experiences by allowing their words to be heard within the context of broader statistical analysis. Those experiences ought to form the basis of any policy adopted in response to this pandemic, and they also call for greater flexibility from professors and administrators in matters that implicate students.
* 5C Students for Grade Equity Data Tea: Zenaida Huerta (CMC ‘20) | Sabrina Vera (PO ‘20) | Johnson Lin (CMC ‘21) | Max Dawson (CMC ‘21) | Diana Hernandez (CMC ‘21) | Rachel Oda (PO ‘20) | Joe Schafer (PO ‘20) | Daisy Ni (PO ‘21) | Isaac Cui (PO ‘20)
Table of Contents
A. Characterizing the data set
i. Changing priorities and instability
iii. Difficulties engaging and participating in online learning
iv. Access to suitable academic space
Table of Figures and Tables
Table 1: proportion of student bodies represented in survey sample.
Figure 1: respondents by college.
Figure 2: respondents by graduating class.
Figure 3: motivation of respondents.
Figure 4: academic motivation separating by self-identified income level.
Figure 5: respondents’ mental state during the pandemic.
Figure 6: comparison of quality of learning space, all respondents.
Figure 7: comparison of quality of learning space, low-income respondents.
Figure 8: comparison of quality of learning space, non-low-income respondents.
Figure 9: access to academic resources for low-income respondents
Figure 10: access to academic resources for non-low-income respondents.
Figure 11: access to academic resources for respondents generally.
Figure 12: comparison of quality of learning space, international students.
Figure 13: comparison of quality of learning space, domestic students.
Figure 14: extent that respondents’ professors are factoring attendance into grades.
Figure 15: extent that respondents’ professors have guaranteed high grades.
Figure 16: extent that respondents’ professors have promised inflated grades.
Figure 17: extent that respondents’ professors have offered recordings of class.
I.Background and methodology
This survey was created and administered by 5C Students for Grade Equity, a group of Claremont Colleges students who seek to ensure equitable grading during this pandemic. Our survey, administered from March 29–31, was designed to collect data on student experiences and opinions. This report, built off that data, is therefore meant to fulfill two purposes. First, we seek to characterize student experience in all of its breadth — to not only show how the pandemic has affected so much of student life, but also to demonstrate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, how it has impacted people in differential and inequitable ways. Second, we attempt to capture students’ opinions on various academic policies and to show with greater certainty which policies have majority support. We hope this report guides deliberations among the 5C faculty in determining how best to alter academic policy in response to this pandemic.
This section proceeds in three parts: first, we discuss the contents of the survey, which has also been attached as Appendix A; second, we explain how the survey was distributed; and third, we explain how we analyzed the data.
A. Overview of the survey
Our survey asked a broad set of questions relating to students’ current experiences and their opinions. A PDF of the full survey can be found in Appendix A. In short, the first six questions asked for identifying information, including home college (Q2); class year (Q3); salient identity characteristics related to socio-economic class, status as a domestic vs. international student, and citizenship (Q4); one’s current place of residence (i.e., on- or off-campus and, for those off-campus, at a temporary versus permanent residence) (Q5–6).
We also asked for academic identification information, such as whether the respondents sought to apply to programs that require grades (Q7), whether they sought to raise their GPA with Spring 2020 (Q8), and the number of courses they were enrolled in (Q9). Questions 10–23 asked about how professors had responded to the pandemic: whether they had guaranteed high (Q10–11) or inflated (Q12–13) grades, whether they had affirmatively not adjusted their grading scheme (Q14–15), whether attendance would impact course grades (Q16–17), whether class would be held at the same time (Q18–19), and whether professors would record classes (Q20–21).
We asked three questions about senior theses: whether their readers had agreed to grade more generously (Q22), how confident seniors were in completing their thesis with current deadlines (Q23), and whether seniors would support extending thesis deadlines (Q40).
Questions 24–29 asked about students’ learning environment and habits, and Question 26, the survey’s only short-answer question, asked, “Can you speak to how your learning environment has changed since leaving campus, if at all?” Questions 30 and 31 concerned whether students considered taking a step back from academics — either dropping a class (Q30) or moving to part time status (Q31) — while Question 32 asked students about their COVID-19-related concerns. Question 33 asked about students’ motivation to complete schoolwork under current requirements, and the last set of questions asked about students’ thoughts on various policy proposals (Q34–40).
b. Distribution process
To distribute the survey, we posted it in a number of Facebook groups. Some were college-specific, while others were open to all 5C students. Some groups were open to specific graduating years, and some were identity group-based. Once posted in the group, we asked students to share the survey widely. The survey was also emailed either via individual students or student government representatives to the entire student bodies at Pitzer, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, and Harvey Mudd. Pomona student representatives sent the survey out through Facebook.
C. Analytical process
The philosophical underpinning of our experiential analysis is that quantitative statistics about the sample provide the context for situating individual stories revealed in the qualitative question (see Q26). Aggregating individual stories, conversely, textures those statistics and provides us with at least plausible explanations for why we see certain trends. We do not purport to fully capture students’ experiences; nothing but their own stories, in totality, can approach that. But by faithfully searching for repetition in different students’ stories and in quoting representative responses, we hope to provide a starting point for conveying the extent to which this pandemic has affected students.
Part of the motivation of this story is not only to show wide variance in how students have been affected by the pandemic, but also to show systematic differences along salient identity lines that demonstrate the inequity that has arisen from this pandemic — and that might be exacerbated by certain grading policies. We thus separate many of our sample-level measurements by the self-identified status of students: whether they are low-income students, first-generation college students, or international students, for example. Additionally, because we seek trends in the qualitative data, we do inductive coding. With 2,587 responses and a week to write this report, however, we fully acknowledge that we do not employ social scientific standard practice, such as measuring intercoder reliability indices. The Claremont Colleges have moved quickly on grading policy discussions; in order for our report to inform those conversations, we had to sacrifice the more time- and labor-intensive practice of assessing intercoder reliability, relevant and important as it is.
II. Data and analysis
This section represents the core findings of our survey. We begin by characterizing our data with descriptive statistics and assessing the extent to which our sample was representative of the population. We then turn to our experiential data, the data that assesses how students’ experiences have changed after The Claremont Colleges evacuated most of their campuses. Next, we analyze the opinion data about what kinds of grading policies students would prefer. Finally, this section ends with a brief discussion of senior theses.
A. Characterizing the data set
Our survey had 2,585 total respondents.[1] To verify their status as Claremont Colleges students, respondents were required to enter in an email address; our analysis suggests that unless non-5C students were using others’ email addresses, the data are reflective of actual students.[2] As a proportion of the student body, we sampled Scripps and Claremont McKenna students best, while Harvey Mudd and Pitzer students were comparatively less well represented. Table 1 presents the number of respondents from each college, as well as the percentage of the college’s student body that this number represents, while Figure 1 visualizes the distribution of respondents.
Table 1: proportion of student bodies represented in survey sample
Figure 1: respondents by college
Our data were slightly biased toward the Class of 2022; compared to the ideal sample of a class (i.e., the number of total responses divided by four), we received 14.8% more responses from the Class of 2022. The least well represented class was the Class of 2020, which received 12.1% fewer responses than the ideal sample given our respondent pool size. Figure 2 depicts the number of respondents from each class.
Figure 2: respondents by graduating class
We can also assess representativeness using self-identified characteristics of our respondents, such as the proportion of respondents that are first-generation, low-income, or international students. In total, just over a quarter of our respondents (25.5%, or 5̋26) are first-generation college students; nearly half of respondents (49.6%, or 1285) are financial-aid recipients, and around one-in-ten (10.5%, or 273) are international students. Table 2 depicts the proportion of each identity characteristic broken down by college, as compared to the colleges’ actual proportions.
Table 2: proportion of respondents that are first-generation, receive financial aid, or are international, compared to 5Cs
B. Short-comings of the data
Table 2 suggests that our sample oversampled first-generation students while undersampling financial aid recipients (particularly from Scripps and Harvey Mudd); our sample of international students was closer to the population’s. Additionally, there are potentially concerns with our survey questions that could bias responses. Because of time constraints in writing this report, we do not expand upon the specific short-comings of our study to the full extent that is best practice. Prudence does compel us, however, to acknowledge that this report ought to be scrutinized for its limitations, and we do value a self-critical posture even as we do not believe we can reasonably implement it in these circumstances.
C. Experiential data
This section considers the experiences of students through four separate themes. We begin with an analysis of academic motivation, which suggests both that students’ motivation generally is low but that it is particularly so for low-income students. From that quantitative data, we assess possible reasons through qualitative responses. We show that factors such as changing priorities in response to familial obligations or financial instability, mental health concerns, the loss of support networks, and difficulties in transitioning to online learning are all powerful reasons that students — especially low-income students — may be less able to prioritize academics. We next turn, in Part 2, to academic support and demonstrate the myriad ways that students have lost crucial mechanisms for performing to a high standard. Our prior assumption was that international students would be substantially affected by the evacuation of The Claremont Colleges, so we devote Part 3 to an analysis of international students’ experiences. Finally, Part 4 considers how students’ professors have purportedly differed regarding academic policies specific to their class.
1. Motivation
We begin with the broad distribution of students’ motivation, which was assessed by Question 33.[17] Figure 3 suggests that motivation, as a whole, is relatively low, with around one-in-six students describing that they are “[n]ot motivated at all” to complete the semester under their classes’ current requirements.
Figure 3: motivation of respondents
It is, of course, difficult to assess whether this is lower motivation than normal given that we do not have a measurement of students before the campuses were evacuated. However, The Claremont Colleges are highly selective, elite institutions. Their institutional missions include searching for students who are highly motivated and driven by a passion for learning. We think it difficult to assume that, under normal circumstances, over half of Claremont students would describe themselves as not motivated[18] and that only one-in-twenty would describe themselves as “[e]xtremely motivated.”
Second, even if the broad distribution is insufficient evidence to suggest decreased motivation, separating between self-identified low-income students and non-low-income students also demonstrates significant gaps in motivation (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: academic motivation separating by self-identified income level
Qualitative data about how people’s learning environment has changed (Q26) provides substantial insight into why motivation may have decreased — and why specifically for low-income students. We discuss, specifically, three factors: (1) changing priorities and instability that students after evacuating campus have experienced; (2) mental health issues affecting many students; and (3) difficulties that some students have faced with transitioning to online learning.
i. Changing priorities and instability
Many students, upon either returning home or finding their own place to stay, have reported that their priorities simply have changed from academics — and understandably so, we suggest. As one student explained, being home can be a huge source of stress because of arguments, financial concerns, a student’s acceptance at home, and familial obligations:
Coming from a [first-generation/low-income] background, my home environment consists of a lot of stressors from both my single-parent trying to make ends meet, as well as my . . . siblings who I also now have to help take care of and are part of my everyday responsibilities. The relationship between my [family] is also very stressed . . . so a lot of arguments happen within the house at times which is very distracting, along with the fact that my personal identity within the LGBTQ+ community isn’t something that is fully accepted at home, making it a space that can take a huge mental toll that I normally don’t have to engage with at [The Claremont Colleges].[19]
Being at home, another student explained, makes for “a very distracting environment in which I am now forced to divert my attention to other more personal matters regarding family that I did not have to worry about on campus.”[20]
Family was an important source of changing priorities. One student noted — in language probably familiar to many faculty and administrators who are parents — that, at home, “family always comes first.”[21] Though school is important, “[t]aking care of my younger brothers, cooking and cleaning are all expected to take a priority . . . . At home there is no one to ask for help or keep me motivated to continue to work on classes.”[22] And this can be exacerbated by family members having unrealistic expectations about what students are capable of. One respondent noted,
My family doesn’t realize that I am still a student. They are behaving as if I am at home for a break and while I was, I am still a full-time student. It is hard for my family to understand that me being at home does not change my status as a student and that they can not have expectations for me to contribute to the household as I used to.[23]
These kinds of household obligations run the gamut. One student explained that their home, which is housing many immunocompromised people, generates a lot of work for that student: “[A] lot of my time during the day is dedicated to looking after kids, helping with grocery shopping, helping my younger sister with her schoolwork and helping my mother feed everyone in my home.”[24] Others need to care for their family’s financial stability. As one wrote, “As a result of coming home and no longer having my work study job, [I] will have to look for jobs to help my family. This will most likely have to be a full time job (35+ hours weekly) which will most certainly have an impact on my grades.”[25] And indeed, even for those who were allowed to stay on campus, these kinds of obligations persist; as one student explained, “I now have to apply for jobs non stop in order to avoid being homeless since my internship was cancelled. This takes an incredible amount of time.”[26]
Many students thus generally represented that their priorities have simply changed as a result of this pandemic. As one student summarized, “I also now have to worry about other things such as feeding myself, working, and paying bills all on top of school work, future goals, and personal issues.”[27]
ii. Mental health concerns
Many respondents also explained that they were struggling with mental health concerns that were in some way exacerbated by the evacuation of the college campuses. For example, some students’ houses are difficult to be in. Perhaps understandably, students rarely elaborated on how their households were abusive. But some did note that they were living in a “toxic household . . . in the middle of a pandemic,”[28] or a “verbally abusive household” leading home to be “very stressful.”[29] Another explained,
I don’t have the best relationship with my family and being around them long-term is not mentally healthy for me. Factor in a two week quarantine punctuated by a 30 day minimum stay at home order and no safe space to speak to a mental health professional about the issues I’m having and well, I think you can figure out how this is going to go.[30]
Another linked living in an abusive environment without access to support: “My home is also emotionally abusive, and being an individual with chronic depression and anxiety without my therapists or resources has been a very hard transition.”31]
Even without the exacerbating effects of living in an abusive environment, many students have lost their personal support systems. One candid student wrote,
I also suffer with depression and anxiety: I have worked hard to create strong routines and structures at school that best alleviate my symptoms/allow me to work through them. These include meeting with professors regularly, creating an uncluttered and productive workspace, having a strong network of friends and accountability partners, weekly therapy, and a dietitian. I do not have any of these structures at home (although I am trying to build them) which has compromised my mental health and thus my ability to learn.[32]
Another echoed the sentiment, noting that returning home “has really thrown [them] off-guard” both because they were “receiving a lot of therapy and counseling on campus” and because “sending [them] back home to where [their] triggers are makes things very difficult.”[33] They added that it was difficult to “no longer see the people who became [their] support system on a daily basis.”[34]
Academic obligations are often stressful. But living in a pandemic obviously exacerbates that stress. Question 32 asked students to note their concerns related to COVID-19.[35] Those concerns have deep implications for academic performance. Nearly six-in-ten (59%) of all respondents noted that they had “lost motivation and ability to focus on school given COVID-19.” Some of these concerns stem relatively directly from COVID-19. Respondents noted that they were living in areas with a “surging number of cases[,]” and detailing:
Family friends have already started getting sick, and it is only a matter of time before my family starts getting sick. All of my aunts and uncles and grandmother are over the age of 60. I myself have a compromised immune system, as well, due to a medical condition. I am finding it nearly impossible to devote full attention to my studies when I have that fear in the back of my mind.[36]
Another noted direly: “I don't think I'll be able to fully commit to academics. My biggest priority is not getting sick. 3 people I know already have it. It's hard to focus when I'm living in constant fear. People close to students, and students themselves, will get sick.”[37] Indeed, sixty-five percent of students reported being “anxious about contracting COVID-19,” while over nine-in-ten (91%) were “anxious about loved ones contracting COVID-19.” Some students explicitly juxtaposed this fear with academic grading, noting,
Honestly, I am living in the epicenter of this virus and it's terrifying — people [I] know are sick and friends of friends have died already. The future presents only scarier things as this virus creeps closer and closer to my most sacred familial circle. At the same time, I need this semester to improve my GPA and I need my classes to be serious so I can have a purpose in this existential world.[38]
That sense of impending COVID-19 fear is likely shared among many students; after all, nearly six-in-ten (58%) noted “spend[ing] hours each day reading news about COVID-19” (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: respondents’ mental state during the pandemic
Moreover, the response to the pandemic — large-scale social distancing — has taken a toll. One student, who lives in an area of a large outbreak, wrote:
I’m living completely by myself at my house in [area of large outbreak]. My family is away caring for my sick grandfather, so they cannot come home. I haven’t talked to someone in person in over a week, and all my on-campus support systems are gone. I am very fortunate to have a stable living environment, but being forced to live alone with intense mental health issues and no support systems has brought forward an entirely new set of issues outside of school.[39]
Life under social isolation can be especially difficult for students with pre-existing mental health issues. As one explained, “Having to stay in the house all day, like most people, is very unfortunate. When I am having a depressive episode, I often isolate and stay indoors. Having to do this has in some effect triggered a depressive episode. I am getting anxiety attacks again as well.”[40]
Social support — something that is much harder to come by in a life mediated by Zoom — is a huge loss for many, many students. One explained that, after struggling with mental health issues in high school, they became substantially healthier in college due to “all of the positive social interactions [they] had on campus, which [they] no longer have.”[41] They elaborated, “I was doing well in college mostly due to my environment. Without that network of in-person support, I’m already seeing my confidence and mental health progress regress.”[42] Another explained, “I am someone who manages my stress primarily through time with friends. My friends have helped support me through many challenging time already . . . and the idea of going back to my studies without them around me is extremely anxiety inducing.”[43]
Yearning for social interaction affected our respondents profoundly. One recounted their experiences,
I can’t leave the house for basically anything other than to go for walks and run some basic errands because we’re under a shelter in place order...I also have virtually no access to my social support systems or to people outside of my family at all, which is killing my mental health. Today was the first time I got to video chat with people from school and I nearly cried at seeing an acquaintance’s face – even though he’s ordinarily not my favorite person![44]
Another described themselves as “very isolated[,]” which “makes it very easy to slip into destructive patterns and mental illness, which will impact my learning ability.”[45] A third described time with friends at school as “mental health time.”[46]
Access to that mental health time is of course unevenly distributed solely from people’s differing situations. Systematically, though, we would expect it also to be biased by time zones (e.g., if one lives halfway around the world from one’s friends, it is almost certainly more difficult to interact) and by access to resources such as strong wifi. Our data, for example, show that of students who do not identify as low-income (n = 2033), over six-in-ten (62.7%, or 1274 students) report having “[s]trong, reliable WiFi.” In contrast, of those respondents who do identify as low-income (n = 555), less than half (46.3%, or 257 students) report having the same. As anyone who has used video conferencing software would know, unstable wifi makes connection and communication substantially more difficult, as some respondents noted.[47] The same is true for students who live in different time zones than their friends.[48] In general, all of these reasons that mental health is declining in a time of pandemic contribute to decreased academic motivation.
iii. Difficulties engaging and participating in online learning
Online learning also simply does not work as well for some — if not most — students as learning in person. Broadly speaking, many foundational aspects of a residential liberal arts college are disrupted by online learning. But respondents also spoke to very specific concerns tied to academic learning. To give three brief examples, one student explained that as a student “with special needs and learning disabilities,” it is very difficult to concentrate or retain information “when not in a physical space with my professor / class.”[49] They also explained that those special needs made focusing in the evening more difficult for them.[50] Another explained that they are a “physical learner” and “do best with physical readings and physical classes and interactive work. [They] hate technology and suffer from headaches from screen exposure, yet all [their] classes require hours and hours of screen exposure.”[51] A third student explained that they were unable to access medication for their learning disability because they lack access to a doctor at home.[52] These examples are small nuggets of insight into how online learning can be difficult for specific individuals, but we by no means intend to represent them as exhaustive.
2. Access to academic support
A second major theme is that access to academic support, generally, has decreased for students. We consider, in turn, access to professors, study groups, tutors, academic space, and academic resources. Each of these nuances and explains why students simply will have a substantially more difficult experience after being evacuated compared to before.
i. Professors
In general, students rely a lot on their professors. One explained that “[a]ccessing professors and other resources . . . has been absolutely critical to my overall experience at college (not only academically, but also socially, mentally, etc) . . . .”[53] Accessing them, however, is almost universally more difficult. For some international students (one student noted being fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time), making it to online office hours is very difficult.[54] Another problem is that some professors are simply difficult people to get a hold of. One student explained that their professors “are very difficult to reach via email.”[55] Previously, that student elaborated, “I would simply go to office hours instead, but not all professors are holding office hours still. Both of my thesis advisors are all but unreachable.”[56]
Even when professors are accessible, other problems can abound. Some students noted that the technology can pose a barrier; as one put it, “Some professors aren't [familiar] with technology (although [they’re] trying their best).”[57] Another elaborated on one of their virtual office hour experiences,
I tried to go to virtual office hours with one professor and it was difficult to follow, even though he tried his best. I couldn’t see which materials he was referencing and he couldn’t tell if we were looking at the same thing, so I’m not anticipating that [office] hours will be helpful when virtual.[58]
A third student explained, “Mostly I worry about the loss of lab for my CS class. Zoom office hours will not be as effective because lab allows me to ask questions WHILE I’m working on the assignment, whereas you have to come to office hours with several questions prepared.”[59] These barriers, of course, are not insurmountable, and students do understand that professors are learning and adjusting just as students are. But the adjustment takes time, whereas deadlines or work often continue marching on for students.
ii. Study groups
Many students rely on other students to succeed academically. As one respondent put it generally, “I seek a lot of academic support from friends in terms of studying and working through concepts that I don't understand. I'm concerned about how/whom I'll ask for help when I'm struggling.”[60] One STEM student elaborated,
[H]ere at home all work must be done completely alone, which poses a particular challenge in . . . [STEM] classes where collaboration on problem sets and lab reports is encouraged and is the norm. Students do not learn science in isolation. They learn it at mentor sessions, at late night study groups with friends, they learn it by going to office hours and studying in solidarity with friends.[61]
Another discussed that though video chatting is theoretically possible for those with strong wifi,[62] it is often a non-answer:
While I still can video chat with my classmates, it can be very difficult to actually work through problems together online, and it can also be hard to orchestrate getting study groups together. Not to mention that now that a lot of coursework can be done on a more flexible schedule (as many lectures can be watched whenever) it can be hard to find people working on the same things that you are.[63]
The result, in a fourth student’s words, is that they “have lost a substantial amount of the people who [they] would consult for help with [their] work.”[64] And the downside is not limited to STEM classes where students collaborate on problem sets. Students also remarked that they were losing out on discussions that enhance their understanding of and enrich the material.[65]
These qualitative pieces of the story are corroborated by students’ responses to questions about their study habits: 77.5% of student respondents report that studying with a group of friends in-person enhances their learning of material, 73.9% report that studying with a single friend in-person enhances their learning of material, and 85.5% report that class activities enhance their learning of material.
iii. Tutors
Students are also reeling from a loss of tutors. One student explained that their “main concern” was the loss of on-campus tutoring.[66] Another explained, “The loss of in-person tutoring is really hard, that’s where I got help from tutors and found people to work with.”[67] Tutoring might be particularly helpful for specific classes or disciplines; some respondents noted computer-science tutoring[68] and accounting,[69] for example. But it is certainly a deeply felt loss to many students.
iv. Access to suitable academic space
One of the strongest signals from our survey is that students have substantially worse access to suitable academic space. We included two general questions asking students to evaluate their learning space: one about at college (Q24) and one about at home (Q27).[70] Our evidence shows not only that, across the board, being at home is worse for learning space than being at college (see Figure 6), but also that this differential is larger for self-identified low-income students compared to non-low-income students (see Figures 7 and 8).
Figure 6: comparison of quality of learning space, all respondents
Figure 7: comparison of quality of learning space, low-income respondents
Figure 8: comparison of quality of learning space, non-low-income respondents
Qualitative data provide insight into these disparities. For one, space matters for many respondents. One explained that the monotony of being at home was a drastic deviation from their normal habits: “I have always been a person who does all my work at coffee shops, study rooms, and the library, and since leaving campus in combination with the pandemic, I do not have access to any of the following.”[71] Another echoed the point:
Because my bedroom functions as my workspace (as opposed to me finding a study room or a common room), I’m not super motivated and often find myself sleeping after I go to my room to do work . . . . I know this is a lot and not all of it is super connected to school but at school I can control my living space *extremely* well, which is important because I cannot function if things are amiss in my space. I depend on a very specific set of routines and conditions and the loss of those routines, combined with the stress of moving home and living through a pandemic and associated economic crash, is making it hard for me to function at all.[72]
Indeed, even for those who report having stable home situations, space is a key factor that makes academic work more difficult: “Even as a student with relatively reliable wifi and a stable home environment, the lack of differentiation between home and study spaces and a desk make it difficult to attain the level of deep work that I relied on at college.”[73]
Others explained that who has access to that space also matters. In other words, being in a full household is very different than one with few other people. One respondent related,
I am currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment with my family of 4 people. We have one desk in the entire apartment, and it belongs to my little sister. My mom, little sister and I have to negotiate a schedule for us to take turns using the desk. The only other table is in the kitchen, but because it's a kitchen/living room, there is always noise and distractions. I don't even have my own room, and there is no quiet place to study. There is definitely no space where I could freely participate in a class discussion, as anything I say can be heard by everyone else in the apartment. I am particularly worried about engaging in discussions for . . . class, and for my . . . writing class, as we sometimes discuss sensitive topics, and I am not at all comfortable with my traditional . . . family members hearing me.[74]
In a busy household, distractions and difficulties in studying abound. One respondent explained,
I do not have a real space to study at home, as I do not have a desk. I live in a completely full house with an entire family who must use zoom for meetings -- two parents who work [over Zoom] and a brother who is on zoom the majority of the day for his high school. I live in a bustling city with many dogs in the house, therefore there is a lot of noise in the house. I personally never do work in my house/dorm at school, opting to do my work at the library to combat my ADHD.[75]
For such students, who lack that privacy and alone time, it is exceedingly difficult to work. Thus, a different student poignantly wrote of their situation, “I don’t even have space to think without others.”[76] And that space, our data show, is unevenly accessed. A mere 26% of low-income respondents reported having access to quiet workspace, and 34% reported having access to private workspace; in comparison, around half of non-low-income students had access to quiet workspace, and six-in-ten had access to private workspace (see Figures 9–11).
Beyond space, lack of other physical resources also help explain why learning space at home is worse than at school. Many respondents discussed lacking desks.[77] One explained how that problem compounded other issues, writing, “I have no desk available and have to work out of bed. I have back issues and get back pain from sitting in bed for a prolonged period but have no other place to sit which limits my studying.”[78] Others explained that they lack access to computers, reliable wifi, textbooks, printers, and software.[79] Figures 9 through 10 contextualize these experiences and demonstrate substantial disparity in access to such resources as printers, desks, and necessary software (respectively, 27%, 23%, and 18% gaps between non-low-income and low-income students). It is worth noting both the universality and inequity behind these numbers. Less than half of students generally (44%) report having access to quiet workspace in their current circumstance. That there is a 24% gap between low-income and non-low-income students’ access to quiet workspace is deeply concerning. But the total number also provides compelling evidence that faculty and administrators should recognize how evacuating the campus has affected students broadly.
Figure 9: access to academic resources for low-income respondents
Fiure 10: access to academic resources for non-low-income respondents
Figure 11: access to academic resources for respondents generally
Beyond the circumstances at home that make it a poor learning space, students have also obviously lost the resources at school that make it so much better for learning. In addition to losing access to professors, tutors, and study groups (as discussed earlier[80]), students also wrote often about the library and other study spaces.[81] Others in performance-based disciplines, such as music, also ran into issues.[82]
3. International students
International students are of course deeply affected by the evacuation of the colleges. This section therefore considers specifically their qualitative responses. We begin by noting that, interestingly enough, the differential in how students rate the quality of their learning space at school compared to home is essentially the same when comparing international students and domestic students (see Figures 12 and 13). Our analysis of qualitative data therefore focuses on how international students might be affected by being in a different time zone, rather than expecting international students to systematically have different pressures such as those analyzed above.[83]
Figure 12: comparison of quality of learning space, international students
Figure 13: comparison of quality of learning space, domestic students
Many classes, respondents explained, essentially do not seem to be structured to accommodate students halfway around the world. As one student explained,
Having my class schedule be 2pm-12am on some days means I will be eating and sleeping at strange times, and my mental health is completely dependent on having regular schedules . . . [S]ome professors are still structuring their syllabi exactly as it were on-campus or have altered it to contain even more work to compensate for the lack of class content[84]
Another explained that their course schedules results in a horrendous sleep schedule that can also affect other members of their family:
The time difference is huge. I have classes [from 12:35 am to 3:15 am on some nights, and 12:35 am to 7:15 am on others]. Basically I have to stay up for 2 whole nights and I may probably get exhausted during the week. Additionally, I live with my grandma and my 6-year-old cousin. They may not sleep well.[85]
Time zones also make anything collaborative more difficult, whether it is formal group work for a class[86] or simply talking with a professor.[87] And other students, based on where they are from, also have difficulty accessing the same kinds of information necessary in order to do research.[88] International students can also be pressured by immigration law. One explained,
My environment has remained in flux since leaving campus in mid-March, and have only just moved to a new place where I think I will be able to keep permanent residence until school ends in May. As a result, I haven't even thought about class or looked at anything I need to do for my thesis, as I've been packing, tired, stressed, and trying to take care of my health . . . I'm not allowed to drop a course due to having taken leave and needing 4 full credits this semester to graduate, and also face visa requirements for maintaining full time status.[89]
Some students also reported horror stories from professors. One, for example, wrote,
I am in a different time zone and my country is 13:30 hours ahead of PST. This will affect my sleep schedule. And there [have] been no great modifications to one of my class’s syllabus even though I emailed all of my professors about my current situation . . . .[90]
Another explained, “It’s difficult to know what is going on especially with the 15 hour time difference. I don’t feel accommodate[d] by 3 of my professors. I am anxious about grades especially for [one specific] class. My prof is telling us to pass fail but I can’t do that for grad school.”[91] Many faculty, of course, have been accommodating; one of our few pieces of systematic evidence to explain this is that almost a majority of our respondents have no classes where attendance will affect their grade (see Figure 14). We think these horror stories are reasons that faculty and students alike ought to take care to listen to students’ — especially international students’ — experiences, and to attempt to accommodate them best as possible given these trying circumstances.
Figure 14: extent that respondents’ professors are factoring attendance into grades
Differences in professorial responses
Our survey asked a few questions about how professors have responded to the pandemic, such as whether they have guaranteed high grades (Q10–11, “Have any of your professors guaranteed a high grade for you this semester?”; “If yes, how many?”), whether they have promised inflated grades (Q12–13, “Have any of your professors told you that they will inflate grades or grade more generously?”; “If yes, how many?”), and whether they have offered to record class (Q20–21, “Have any of your professors offered available recordings of class to accommodate students in different time zones?”; “If yes, how many?”). The data suggest at least non-trivial amounts of deviation from the modal action on professors’ part, and the result could be extremely arbitrary (see Figures 15–17). (For example, that three respondents have had five professors who have guaranteed high grades while over two-thousand have had none seems bizarre.) We think this additional layer of arbitrariness is a compelling reason for the colleges to act in some kind of central manner. We note, however, that this survey was taken before the second week of Spring Break was fully over, and many professors have likely already acted in ways that would change these statistics.[92]
Figure 15: extent that respondents’ professors have guaranteed high grades
Figure 16: extent that respondents’ professors have promised inflated grades
Figure 17: extent that respondents’ professors have offered recordings of class
The sum of our experiential data, we argue, suggests not only that students are substantially affected generally by this pandemic, but also that they are differentially so in important ways. Our data help explain how low-income and international students, in particular, are affected — the former by lacking access to important systems of support or resources, and the latter by difficulties associated with being in very different time zones than their professors and most of their peers. Of course, none of this is demonstrative of what policy a school ought to take. (See section III(C).) But it does suggest that it would be prudent to be sympathetic and gentle when it comes to evaluating students, given that there are so many new barriers that have been erected between many students and academic success.
D. Opinion data
Our data also speak to the popularity of various grading options. Each question allowed for integer responses between 1 and 5, where 1 was “[s]trongly oppose” and 5 was “[s]trongly support.” Question 34 asked about a policy that guaranteed B+ as the lowest grade for “all students who receive a final grade higher than C-”; Q35 about a policy that “requires your professors to add points to your raw grade (grade inflation)”; Q36 about a policy of universal pass without the option of letter grades; Q37 about a policy of universal pass with the option of letter grades; Q38 about a policy of universal pass/fail without letter grades;[93] and Q39 about a policy of universal pass/fail with the option of letter grades. The data show that students most strongly supported the first policy of placing a floor on passing grades at B+ and secondarily a policy of grade inflation.[94] Among the variants of pass/fail, universal pass/fail was most unpopular across all demographic categories, and the second least popular was universal pass. A blanket pass policy with the option of letter grading was slightly less popular than a policy of blanket pass/fail with the option of letter grading.
Figure 18: opinion data on the six proposals
E. Thesis
Our survey also collected data on theses for seniors. The data show that over eight-in-ten (86%) of seniors supported extra time to complete their thesis, while less than one-in-twenty (4%) did not. Additionally, around one-in-eight (13%) of seniors report that their thesis readers have declared that they will grade the thesis more leniently. Around a quarter (23%) of seniors are confident that they can finish their thesis under their current deadlines, while over half (53%) are not.[95]
Figure 19: senior respondents’ confidence in completing their thesis by current deadlines
III. Conclusions
Our data show that the policies that receive strongest support from students are those that preserve the ability to opt-in to grades compared with those that require universal outcomes. Indeed, the most supported policies are not variants of pass-fail policies, but rather, grade inflation and grade floor policies. Our data also show that seniors strongly support having more time to work on their theses.
The core of this report, however, was our experiential data. We believe the experiential data is best understood as such. In other words, though we can draw some conclusions (for example, motivation is low at least in part because students have shifting priorities and because they have lost their personal support systems; access to academic supports has decreased), the top-level conclusion is not particularly insightful nor helpful. What matters, more than anything, is that our community carefully reflects on the narratives laid out in this report.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The number here is somewhat variable throughout this report because the qualitative and quantitative analyses occurred in parallel. Members of the team who were reading the qualitative data spotted repeated data entries, and so deleted the redundancies; but those spotted redundancies were not noticed until after much of the quantitative data analysis occurred. Nevertheless, because there were only a few responses affected by this, we did not redo all of the rest of the quantitative analysis.
[2] Of the 2,585 respondents, we searched for “cmc.edu”, “hmc.edu”, “pomona.edu”, “pitzer.edu”, and “scrippscollege.edu” as substrings in the email addresses responses, revealing 184 responses that did not have any of the five. It is likely that some, if not many, of those 184 responses were real 5C email addresses with typos. (For example, when searching for “scripps” rather than “scrippscollege.edu” as a substring of the email addresses, five further responses are picked up.) But even if all 184 responses were faked, that represents seven percent of the sample and probably should not falsify our conclusions.
[3] Pomona information gathered from: https://www.pomona.edu/about/fact-sheet; CMC information gathered from: https://www.cmc.edu/institutional-research/fact-sheet; Scripps information gathered from: https://www.scrippscollege.edu/about/glance; Pitzer information gathered from: https://www.pitzer.edu/about/fast-facts/; Harvey Mudd information gathered from: https://www.hmc.edu/about-hmc/fast-facts/
[4] Gathered from: https://www.pomona.edu/students/student-organizations/fli-scholars-pomona
[5] From 2018-2019, gathered from: https://www.pomona.edu/about/profile-who-goes-pomona
[6] From 2019-2020, gathered from: https://www.pomona.edu/about/profile-who-goes-pomona
[7] All Claremont McKenna data from 2019-2020, gathered from: https://www.cmc.edu/institutional-research/fact-sheet
[8] From 2017-2018, gathered from: http://www.scrippscollege.edu/assessir/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/Scripps-College-Fact-Book-2017-2018-Public-1.pdf (page 2)
[9] From 2016-2017, gathered from: http://www.scrippscollege.edu/assessir/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/Scripps-College-Fact-Book-2017-2018-Public-1.pdf (page 30)
[10] From 2017-2018, gathered from: http://www.scrippscollege.edu/assessir/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/Scripps-College-Fact-Book-2017-2018-Public-1.pdf (page 2)
[11] Calculated from admitted students data from class of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Data for each class can be found, respectively, at: https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/2016-admitted-students-profile/; https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/2017-admitted-class-profile/; https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/2018-admitted-class-profile/; https://www.pitzer.edu/admission/2019-admitted-class-profile/
[12] Gathered from: https://www.pitzer.edu/about/fast-facts/
[13] See footnote 10.
[14] Calculated from matriculated students data from class of 2020 and 2023 at time of enrollment. Data for each class can be found, respectively, at: https://www.hmc.edu/about-hmc/2016/08/15/harvey-mudd-college-welcomes-class-2020/; https://www.hmc.edu/about-hmc/2019/08/15/harvey-mudd-class-of-2023/
[15] From 2019-2020, gathered from: https://www.hmc.edu/about-hmc/fast-facts/
[16] From 2019-2020, gathered from: https://www.hmc.edu/institutional-research/institutional-statistics/institutional-statistics-students/student-enrollment-raceethnicity/
[17] Question 33, in full, reads, “How motivated would you say you are to complete schoolwork this semester under your class’s [sic] current requirements?” The answer options were a 1–5 scale anchored at the extremes (1 and 5, respectively, as “[n]ot motivated at all” and “[e]xtremely motivated).
[18] This number comes from combining the respondents who answered “1” or “2” to the question. The question did not include a neutral anchor, however, so one could very reasonably disagree with interpreting “1” and “2” as broadly “not motivated.”
[19] Respondent 43. After collecting data, the survey writers separated the data from the email addresses and assigned a unique ID number to each response and each email address. When we refer to specific responses, we use ID numbers. Our survey explained, “We require an email to be collected in order to sort the data and assign a randomized ID, but your identity will not be shared with anybody other than the surveyors.” Thus, other team members who were not survey writers did not have access to the key that related email addresses to responses.
Further, to preserve the anonymity of respondents, we redact certain identifiers that could allow people to guess at the identity of respondents. Thus, while some alterations (always either in brackets or represented by ellipses) are clarifications of acronyms or correct spelling/grammar, many are redactions.
[20] Respondent 445.
[21] Respondent 83.
[22] Id.
[23] Respondent 380.
[24] Respondent 50.
[25] Respondent 1148.
[26] Respondent 280.
[27] Respondent 26. See also Respondent 1915 (“Given the ongoing pandemic, I feel that I’m not fully in the headspace to engage with my classes and coursework as I have before. There are a lot of things I have to worry about: food, housing, supporting myself financially. I feel that this really puts me at a disadvantage.”); Respondent 2177 (“[I] don’t have any of the resources offered at school ie wifi, study spaces, libraries, guaranteed meals.”).
[28] Respondent 1387.
[29] Respondent 152. See also Respondent 964 (explaining that they were in an “abusive household and lack[ing] an environment that facilitates focus”); Respondent 1051 (noting their “[s]emi-abusive environment”).
[30] Respondent 1406.
[31] Respondent 20.
[32] Respondent 1164.
[33] Respondent 105.
[34] Id.
[35] Specifically, they were to check “any of the following that apply to you”: “I am anxious about contracting COVID-19”; “I am anxious about loved ones contracting COVID-19”; “I spend hours each day reading news about COVID-19”; “I meet one of the conditions presented by the CDC as at-risk for developing severe illness or complications upon contracting COVID-19”; “Someone in my household meets the conditions presented by the CDC as at-risk for developing severe illness or complications upon contracting COVID-19”; “If someone in my household contracts COVID-19, I would be their caretaker”; and “I have lost motivation and ability to focus on school given COVID-19.”
Two of the options were modified halfway through survey collection. The ones that now read “conditions presented by the CDC as at-risk for developing severe illness or complications upon contracting COVID-19” originally read, “at high risk for COVID-19,” which was medically inaccurate. Thus, we note that the numbers associated with this question might be suspect.
[36] Respondent 61.
[37] Respondent 191. See also Respondent 391 (“I have been overwhelmed with figuring out my housing and concern over my at-risk family living in the epicenter of the disease who I cannot be in contact with.”).
[38] Respondent 2379.
[39] Respondent 1412.
[40] Respondent 1681.
[41] Respondent 1061.
[42] Id.
[43] Respondent 1240.
[44] Respondent 1363.
[45] Respondent 1554.
[46] Respondent 1634.
[47] See, e.g., Respondent 1620 (“Collaborating and studying with others is also now incredibly difficult, especially since my connection to internet is extremely unstable, which is also a significant issue when I need to access Zoom.”); Respondent 2157 (“My current residence does not always have stable connection, so I have to drive about 30 minutes to my grandparents house in order to ensure enough connection to fully attend class.”).
[48] See, e.g., Respondent 2473 (“I am unable to meet with friends in person to go over anything, many of my friends are in different time zones/have family and personal health to worry about, and I am unable to study anywhere other than my house. All of these factors have contributed to my increasing anxiety and depression (the former from concern about school/friends and family/coronavirus in general and the latter from being forced to stay at home) which, in the past, has negatively impacted my ability to focus.”); Respondent 1885 (noting that as a student from Asia “who works at home, I found I lose the opportunities to study with friends and more importantly to participate in class and interact with professors”).
[49] Respondent 1725. See also Respondent 1265 (“I do not have consistent access to a distraction free environment. As someone with ADHD this is really important for me. I no longer have in person chemistry tutoring, and the in person aspect is very important for my attendance and retention of information.”).
[50] Respondent 1725.
[51] Respondent 1587. See also Respondent 1523 (“Lecture recordings and zoom especially are inaccessible to me as I have a sensory disability.”).
[52] Respondent 2479.
[53] Respondent 1620.
[54] Respondent 1841.
[55] Respondent 544.
[56] Id. See also Respondent 1767 (“[I] have a couple of professors who are very hard to reach in general, so now with the time difference and the overall situation, it’s more difficult.”).
[57] Respondent 2075.
[58] Respondent 1167.
[59] Respondent 1591.
[60] Respondent 1435.
[61] Respondent 96. See also Respondent 1965 (“So far the biggest change has been a loss of support for problem sets for my STEM classes. Before, we relied on collaboration and creative problem solving to get through hours of challenging problems together. Now it is incredibly discouraging to have to stumble through work meant for a team all alone.”).
[62] And many do not. See Figures 9–11.
[63] Respondent 2083.
[64] Respondent 712.
[65] See, e.g., id. (“I’m also missing the discussions I would have with people that would help me grasp the material more deeply.”); Respondent 651 (“It is much more difficult to truly understand a concept without working with the prof or with classmates or mentors. Also, in discussion based classes, a huge aspect of our learning is hindered.”); Respondent 1248 (“Office hours aren’t the same; mentor sessions are cancelled, I can’t study with friends which is how I learn best; virtual classes make it hard to ask questions during class or engage in discussion”); Respondent 668 (“Lost the diversity of opinions that are present in class. The scope of education became narrow.”).
[66] Respondent 1416.
[67] Respondent 1265. See also Respondent 388 (“My learning environment has shifted significantly because I am a hands on learner who attends multiple tutoring sessions a week at either the Keck Science Dept. or the QCL. These sessions are integral to my learning, and even though they are still being offered remotely the in-person experience is very important to me.”).
[68] Respondent 1421.
[69] Respondent 2515.
[70] It is worth noting that the questions were not duplicated in terms of wording. While both began, “How would you rate your learning space at” college or home, Q27 included an additional prompt: “(I.e. Consider distractions, privacy of space, desk availability, WiFi reliability).” The wording likely primed respondents to evaluate their learning space at home more negatively than if the additional prompt were not present. That being said, our demonstration of a disparity in terms of how wide that difference was for low-income versus non-low-income students should be robust despite this wording difference.
[71] Respondent 980.
[72] Respondent 1363.
[73] Respondent 1408.
[74] Respondent 889.
[75] Respondent 1360.
[76] Respondent 19.
[77] See, e.g., Respondent 2040; 1302; 1062; 923.
[78] Respondent 2192.
[79] See, e.g., Respondent 1085 (“I no longer have the proper access to a computer. I am a low income student and can not afford to purchase a new laptop.”); Respondent 1302 (“I cannot study at home. My home environment does not even have reliable wifi, a desk, or even a desktop computer.”); Respondent 1062 (“I do not have a desk at home so I will likely be doing my work at the kitchen table or on my bed. I do not have . . . a printer. I do not have [access] to physical copies of course textbooks such as my organic chemistry textbook and solutions manual.”); Respondent 2559 (“Poor wifi, no printer, and having issues with accessing key software I need for my thesis.”); Respondent 923 (“I don't have access to consistent WiFi, meaning I won't be able to participate in all class sessions or online office hours. I don't have access to statistical software or library books necessary for my thesis. I don't have access to a printer, so I can't annotate my class readings, which helps me retain info. I also don't have any private spaces or desks to do my work, so there will be distractions in the room with me, and I will have to work on a couch or bed.”); Respondent 1031 (“Completing my thesis without the use of the library has been detrimental. The library has offered a few new resources but none of them have the materials that I had been using for my research. I've had to buy books out of pocket to complete my thesis but because of shipping delays they will not arrive until a month or less before the deadline.”).
[80] See Parts II(C)(2)(i)–(iii).
[81] See, e.g., Respondent 569 (“[T]he library and study rooms were imperative to my quality of work, I am not longer able to access necessary texts, I am not able to utilize off campus resources that I was using for class projects before”); Respondent 103 (“Also I’m working on restructuring my entire thesis research because I don’t have access to the library’s server anymore and the data that I was using, or the IT’s processing ability that I was relying on.”); Respondent 1099 (“Many of the resources I relied on are no longer accessible such as great study spaces and friends to help study and work but most importantly the lack of access to help centers like the QSC and the writing center will greatly affect how well I learn.”); Respondent 229 (“I no longer have a quiet study space and am suffering from lack of resources pertaining to my thesis, in particular books that I once had on campus from the library. I can't access these books at home . . . because the city's public library has been shut down indefinitely and am not sure how long it would take for books to arrive from either the 5C library or other libraries. I also can only work on my laptop here but when I was at [one of The Claremont Colleges], I would frequently be at a computer lab to work because I benefited greatly from the dual monitors.”).
[82] See, e.g., Respondent 1318 (“I don't have access to the same resources (materials for art class, a piano and quiet practice room for music theory and private instruction).”); Respondent 1551 (“I’m a studio art major, and I work with [specific tool]. Without my art materials, which are inaccessible to me here, I’m unable to build my skill set and finish my thesis as I had planned.”); Respondent 1725 (“I am a studio art major and cannot get any supplies delivered because of COVID / the college's [reluctance] to give me funds to buy materials . . . .”); Respondent 1987 (“One of my classes is video art. The class heavily consists of making videos using the camera equipment available in college. . . . Our professor still expects good quality videos but without the ability to focus, have a tripod to get different angles, microphones, it’s basically impossible.”).
[83] For example, this is not to say that international students do not also go home and have changing priorities. See, e.g., Respondent 1483 (“It’s much harder to keep the same schedule now that I’m at home. I now have both the responsibility of a college student and a person who has household duties-all while waking up at 4:30am for my first class.”). The point is, instead, that we expect many of those experiences to be individualized and not systematic. Much of the earlier analysis almost certainly applies to many international students, but our point is that this analysis of differing time zones’ effects will be primarily limited to international students.
[84] Respondent 865.
[85] Respondent 1403. See also Respondent 177 (“[A]ll my classes now start later than 10 pm, and some go until 2 am.”); Respondent 363 (“I will be taking classes at 4am.”); Respondent 1079 (“[T]wo of my exams are now scheduled past 11:30pm in my timezone. In talking to the profs, they have not been accommodating and expect me to operate to the best of my ability at this time.”).
[86] See, e.g., Respondent 1380 (“While three of my professors have been accommodating in recording lectures, there are still a lot of group projects to be done and I worry that I won't be able to engage fully simply because my classes are scheduled to be 1am-5am in my current time zone at home . . . .”); Respondent 2201 (“It's become rather horrible. The difference between timezones is 10 hours, and my home environment is definitely not conducive to productive, effective learning…Most of my final projects were meant to be groupwork, and they do not seem to change at all, so I have to work rather poorly, at odd hours, and across continents.”); Respondent 449 (“I have a time difference so coordinating with friends across the country / world will be more difficult. Collaborative learning whether it be class discussions or talking about material inside or outside of class to better understand the course is one of the main things I enjoy about [a Claremont College] curriculum.”).
[87] See, e.g., Respondent 1228 (“Due to the time difference (I'm 15hour ahead of PDT), it's been hard for me to find a time to meet with my professors.”); Respondent 1359 (“Don’t have the same freedom to work whenever and wherever. Contact with professors and students in my class will be much harder as I am in Hong Kong now and a majority are based in the US.”); Respondent 1841 (“Now it is . . . .hard to speak with professors individually (e.g. office hours) because of long distance and vastly different time zones ([home] is +15 hours ahead of PST); one of my professors isn't using Zoom at all and only doing emails/phone calls due to technical difficulties”).
[88] See, e.g., Respondent 1403 (“I’m currently in . . . China. Also I need VPN to access many foreign websites, including google, but all four of my classes require research papers. The ability for me to do research is highly limited. “); Respondent 1228 (“Since . . . our internet is heavily restricted, this means that I have limited access to Google and other resources that I usually rely heavily on in order to help me succeed in classes and research assignments.”);
[89] Respondent 1789.
[90] Respondent 1390.
[91] Respondent 1208.
[92] Note that the bars here do not add up to the number of respondents in these graphs, suggesting that some students must have claimed that none of their professors were doing the action in question but nevertheless gave a non-zero number in response to the accompanying question.
[93] Specifically, the policy was phrased as one “that universally passes students if they receive a final grade higher than C- and removes the option for letter grades[.]”
[94] We define “support” as either a 4 or 5 on the five point scale.
[95] Similarly to the opinion questions, this question, Q23, allowed for responses ranging from 1 (“[n]ot confident at all”) to 5 (“[e]xtremely confident”). And just like our analysis of the opinion questions, we define “confident” as a 4 or a 5.