There's a lot of information being shared right now. In CALS, we've launched this Daily Digest email as a way to highlight an important resource, tip, or service and also share a summary of announcements.

We'll continue to publish the weekly CALS Connect (for undergraduate students) and the monthly Master the Month (for graduate students) but, for the time being, you'll also receive this Daily Digest Tuesday through Saturday.

Dear Arizona Students,
While I will always encourage you to complete all of your courses, there are extreme disruptions that have occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic that may have such significant impacts on some of you that we have developed a suite of one-time additional options. The material below is complex, due to the nature of how these options can be met. Please read through; we stand ready to help.

The logistics associated with this guidance are being worked out in real time. We appreciate your patience as we work to implement these policy changes. An FAQ is now available on the Office of the Registrar website, and the most up-to-date details will be provided there. We encourage you to consult with your academic adviser as you consider any of the options described in this memo.

Given the extreme disruptions that have occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following policies will be implemented on an emergency basis during the Spring 2020 term. The entire University of Arizona community is committed to your success and hope that these additional options and accommodations will help you focus on completing your courses while managing through all of the stressors this pandemic may have caused.

This temporary policy was created to help keep you on track toward graduation. We are striving to maximize the credits you earn during the Spring 2020 term while at the same time ensuring the quality of instruction and your learning, subject to the constraints imposed by the pandemic.

We believe that many of you will be able to adjust, and we hope that you and your instructors will work to complete your courses using the remote modality using the typical assignments and assessments (albeit in an online format) and on the spring semester timeline.

However, where adjustment is not possible, we provide the following guidance and assistance in this regard. Instructors and students will be given, on a one-time basis, the following additional options related to grading during the Spring 2020 term.

During the Spring 2020 term only, and at the discretion of the individual student, any course may be graded on a pass/fail basis, and these courses will count towards program requirements and satisfy future prerequisite requirements if a passing grade is earned. A student wishing to move to the pass/fail grading option must notify the registrar by the last day of class for Spring 2020. Please keep in mind that some courses taken on a pass/fail basis are constrained from being used to meet certain major requirements

The last date for a student-initiated withdrawal from a full-term class in the current term will be moved to April 14, 2020, and the units associated with withdrawn courses will NOT count towards the 18-unit lifetime maximum allowed for undergraduate students.

For non-full-term sessions, the registrar will provide similar dates. The deadline for complete withdrawal will remain the last day of class.

Note: The new deadline for individual class withdrawal occurs after you have been allowed to experience the new online modality for a few weeks. The deadline for course drops and refund period remain the same.

In a future term, you may repeat any course taken during the Spring 2020 term without having this subsequent attempt count towards grade replacement opportunity (GRO) or repeat option limits.

Current University of Arizona policies stipulate that students may attempt a course no more than twice. For the purpose of grade replacement opportunity (GRO), a student may only attempt to repeat a total of 3 courses, not to exceed 10 units, and only those students who have earned fewer than 60 units may utilize the grade replacement opportunity.

Note: This policy change will not undo any previously utilized course repeat or grade replacement attempts, nor will it allow any student who is no longer eligible for grade replacement to become eligible.

Academic eligibility is the ability to enroll in courses at the University of Arizona; it is automatically calculated at the end of each fall and spring semester. The five undergraduate academic statuses are: eligible, academic review, academic warning, academic probation, ineligible.

The academic eligibility status of an undergraduate student at the end of the Spring 2020 term will be determined by the student’s most recent status, unless a student earns a cumulative 2.0 GPA or greater, in which case their status will become “eligible.” This will allow students to move out of the bottom four statuses if they had a “good” Spring 2020 semester or remain in their current status if the Spring 2020 semester is not helpful to their academic standing. That is, with this revised policy, a student could not move from warning to probation, nor from probation to ineligible statuses.

Please let us know how we can help you continue to be successful this semester.