The University of Michigan has paused its plan to mask first-semester grades for students in its liberal arts college, which was announced in August and would have taken effect in fall 2027.
In a Monday letter to university officials, President Domenico Grasso lauded the program’s goals and approach but said its ability to succeed had been derailed by “distorted narratives” in widespread media coverage.
“I worry further that our students could bear the consequences of those misperceptions, including being unfairly portrayed as coddled or unprepared for the demands of a rigorous Michigan education,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The pilot plan aimed to address student mental health. The university cited its own Healthy Minds study, which found 32 percent of college students nationally reporting symptoms of anxiety and 11 percent seriously considering suicide in the last year.
“I believe this pilot program has the potential to not only address the alarming rates of stress, depression and anxiety among our students, but to deliver on our core promise as a liberal arts and sciences college,” Rosario Ceballo, dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, said in an August statement announcing the program.
The College of Literature, Science and the Arts is the largest at the public university, with about 3,500 freshmen enrolled yearly, just less than half of the total class.
Students in the college would have still received letter grades, but the school planned to simply list classes as “P” for pass or “NC” for no credit on official transcripts. And the first-semester grades wouldn’t be used to calculate grade point averages.
Backlash was swift across social media and traditional channels.
“Many young people are eager to take on new challenges primarily because they know that it is a part of learning and growing up,” Mateo Álvarez, a Michigan senior, wrote in an Aug. 21 letter to the editor published by The Washington Post. “My school’s administration, however, doesn’t seem to agree. And as long as it opts its pupils in to the path of least resistance, it is likely that Michigan’s students will lose.”
In his Monday letter, Grasso said he decided to pause the program after consulting with Ceballo and Laurie McCauley, the university provost. He didn’t mention if the pause, meant to “allow for further input, analysis and discussion,” would be permanent or when it may be revisited. University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other schools have implemented similar no-grade policies.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has offered some form of pass/no credit for first-year students since 1968. And Swarthmore College stopped publishing letter grades for first-semester students on transcripts in the 1970s.
Richard Wicentowski, provost and computer science professor at Swarthmore, told The Post last month that the policy helps reduce new students’ stress levels and encourages them to try new subjects.
“It’s very surprising to me that it is controversial,” Wicentowski said, adding: “It really brings the temperature down.”
Todd Wallack contributed to this report.
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