COVID Student Grading FAQs

After students have their grades they will access an electronic grading options form, available here.

• Keep original grade
• COVID Pass/Fail
• Drop Course without academic penalty
• COVID Withdraw – Extenuating Circumstances

You will then make a selection for each of your courses and submit the form. Your decisions are final, and the form cannot be altered once submitted. Students can elect a different grading option for each course.

If you believe your final grade was negatively impacted by COVID-19, you have the option to take a COVID Pass/Fail, to drop or withdraw in any course.

The election deadline is May 29, 2020. If students do not fill out the form by then, the default is “Keep original grade.”

The Faculty of Law has identified 6 members of Faculty and Staff who will act as Academic Advisers. If you need advice with respect to any element of the grading options please contact:

• Gillian Calder, Associate Dean, Academic and Student Relations: lawassoc@uvic.ca
• Michelle Lawrence, incoming Associate Dean, Academic and Student Relations: mlawr@uvic.ca
• Yvonne Lawson, Manager, Academic Administration and Student Services: lawmaass@uvic.ca
• Geoff Loomer, Graduate Studies Adviser: geoffreyloomer@uvic.ca
• Laura Pringle, Law Careers Officer: lco@uvic.ca
• Ruth Young, Manager, Indigenous Initiatives: lawjid@uvic.ca

After the student makes their election, the information will be uploaded to a data base. A team of us will then make the grade changes, and once those are done, the student will have a final transcript for Spring 2020.

Your elected grades will not appear immediately on your transcript; they will appear after staff in the Faculty of Law checks the changes and submits the revised grades. An email will be sent to the student once the change has been made.

For graduating students, your JD will be conferred on July 15, 2020.

Many of our students are set to begin articling in May, 2020. In order to enable those students to start their articles when scheduled, we have designed a process that prioritizes the processing of your election choices. And, we have streamlined a process for “Letters of Completion.”

Even though our students will not receive their degrees until July 15, 2020 (when Senate meets to confer degrees), you can begin articling as soon as the Associate Dean, Students, writes a letter to the relevant Law Society to indicate that your academic requirements are complete. Those letters cannot be written until the student has finalized their grades through the election process.

All transcripts for students taking courses at UVicLaw in Spring 2020 will carry a notation that reads: DISRUPTION OF STUDIES DUE to COVID19

For students who keep their grades their transcripts will appear as they usually do (course, unit value, grade, grade point, awarded units) for example:

LAW 307B CIVIL PROCEDURE WITH DRAFTING 2.0 82% A- 7 2.0

For students who take a COVID grade the notation will appear as follows (course, unit value, P or F, award units, note) for example:

LAW 320 WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION 1.5 P 1.5 COVID19

If a student has a grade of 50% or above, and elects a COVID Pass/Fail they will receive the grade of P and a note on their transcript, COVID19. They will receive the assigned unit value for the course, but the P will not count towards their GPA.

If a student has a grade of 49% or below, and elects a COVID Pass/Fail they will receive the grade of F and a note on their transcript, COVID19. They will not receive the assigned unit value for the course, and the F will not be counted towards their GPA. Students with a COVID Fail will be required to write a supplemental exam, if eligible.

What is a COVID Pass?

“COVID-19 Pass” grades:

• will be considered as a successful academic attempt;
• will accumulate credit – therefore, a course that receives a pass will contribute to the required unit accumulation for degree and program requirements;
• will count toward program requirements and pre-requisites that do not have a minimum grade requirement;
• will not be included in GPA calculations;
• will not be available to students with a DEF in any course;
• students will not be permitted to write a supplemental in a course in which they elected to take a COVID-19 Pass.

A COVID-19 pass will be a record that a student has met the course’s learning outcomes, but had their final grading impacted by the pandemic.

What is a COVID Fail?

“COVID-19 Fail” grades:

• will not be considered as a successful academic attempt;
• will not accumulate credit – therefore a course that receives a fail will not contribute to the required unit accumulation for degree and program requirements;
• will not count toward program requirements and pre-requisites;
• will not be included in GPA calculations;
• students will be required, if eligible, to write a supplemental in a course in which they receive a COVID-19 Fail.

No.  Law 390 has a minimum grade requirement of 65% (C+).  If you take a COVID Pass you will not receive credit for Law 390.  It is a graduation requirement to do a major paper so for a graduating student, taking a COVID Pass in Law 390 means you will not convocate this Spring.

A student can drop any course in which they have an assigned grade without academic penalty.

Students with a DEF grade, meaning that an exam or assignment has been deferred, should not elect to drop the course.

Important: All 1L students who are thinking of dropping a course MUST consult the Associate Dean, Students. A 1L student who drops a course will not have 1L standing, and would not ordinarily be permitted to commence 2L course work.

If you drop a course, it will be removed from your transcript, and no record of having taken the course will show. No tuition will be refunded.

The appeal process for Spring 2020 will be unique given that exams will not be held in the Front Office for viewing. The appeal period will start the day following grade release, and will be open for 21 days. Students will be required to review their grades BEFORE electing their grades through the election process. The appeal process is as set out in our Faculty regulations and available here:
https://www.uvic.ca/law/assets/docs/studentandacademicmatterspagedocs/Review%20of%20an%20As
signed%20Grade.pdf

The first step in the appeal process will be to contact your professor to review your exam.

It will not be possible to complete a formal grade appeal before the May 29, 2020 election process deadline. Therefore, if you are considering formally appealing your grade, you should elect your grades, including keeping the grade that is under appeal. Once the formal appeal is complete, we will be able to make a grade change, outside of the regular process, if need be.

All students seeking to appeal their grades should contact Associate Dean Calder as soon as possible.

Some students who have incomplete work from the term may receive a grade of N with a mark out of 100. Students with the grade of N will not be able to elect COVID Pass. Their options will be: keep the grade, COVID Fail, Drop or COVID WE. As above, the consequences for a 1L of dropping or taking a WE are different than that of upper year students, and those students should be encouraged to discuss their choices with Associate Dean Calder.

Students with N grades should be sure to contact Associate Dean Calder or Yvonne Lawson to discuss course completion.

Students who have deferred work will receive the grade of DEF, which is a place holder until the deferred work is complete. This will include students who had to defer their exams to July due to the impact of the pandemic. Those students will not be able to choose COVID Pass/Fail. They will be able to keep their grade, or to choose to Drop or take a COVID WE. As above, the consequences for a 1L of dropping or taking a WE are different than that of upper year students, and those students should be encouraged to discuss their choices with Associate Dean Calder.

Students with DEF grades should be sure to contact Associate Dean Calder or Yvonne Lawson to discuss course completion.

How any future employer or graduate school will view a COVID Pass is unknown. Completing your courses this term, no matter what grade you received, is a mark of resilience. And every transcript will bear the notation: COVID19 OCCURRED DURING THIS TERM.

If a student elects to take a COVID Pass in place of one or more of their grades, our messaging from UVicLaw is that means the student met the learning outcomes of the course, but was unable to do their best due to the exigencies of the pandemic. We will stand firmly behind our students who make these elections.

For more in depth conversation, please contact Laura Pringle, our Law Careers Officer (lco@uvic.ca). The Law Careers Office has posted FAQs at their website: https://www.uvic.ca/law/jd/lawcareersoffice/index.php. These FAQs will also be continually updated, and will provide students with as much information as possible on the relationship between their transcripts in this time of COVID-19 and their future work in law.

2L and 3L students must take a minimum of 14.5 and a maximum of 16.5 units in their final two years of their JD, and in the final three years of their JD/JID. If a student elects to take a COVID grade, there may be implications for that student’s standing within their year, and their ability to progress to the next year of the degree. And for convocating students, it may affect you ability to convocate this term.

If you have any concerns about standing, please contact Associate Dean Calder or Yvonne Lawson.

Information on issues of standing are found in the Calendar:

Undergraduate calendar - May 2020 - Law

Faculty of Law Requirements

Some of these questions will be unique for students in some of our other programs, including:

• JD+MBA Double Degree Program
• JD+MPA Double Degree Program
• JD/BCL (Civil Law Degree Graduates)
• Concentration in Environmental Law and Sustainability
• Law Co-operative Education Program

Students with questions specific to these programs, or to the ramifications on their progress through their degree due to the election they are thinking of making should speak with Yvonne Lawson or Associate Dean Calder.