Academic Affairs COVID-19 Information

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, SUNY Plattsburgh remains committed to supporting student success with high quality curriculum and excellence in teaching. We place the highest priority on a flexible, engaging approach to course delivery that protects the health and safety of students, faculty and staff.

Fall 2021

With increasing vaccination rates and improving COVID trends, we expect most classes will be in-person for Fall 2021. We will follow guidelines related to social distancing, masking and testing as we plan for a safe return to campus. Additional information will be shared as it becomes available.

Room Capacity for Social Distance in Classrooms

Spring 2021

Grading Policy Changes

Pass/Fail Option for ONE non-major course.
The Pass/Fail Grading Policy is temporarily modified to permit the choice of a single non-major course for Pass/Fail grading. Courses that fulfill major and cognate requirements, ENG101 and graduate courses are not eligible for Pass/Fail. Students may opt in for Pass/Fail grading for a single course through Thursday May 20, 2021, one day following the deadline for the submission of grades. A pass (P) grade may be selected for letter grades equivalent to a D or better. A pass grade is not calculated in semester or cumulative GPAs, however a fail grade is equivalent to an E and is counted in the GPA. Pass grades in repeated courses will be allowed to replace previously earned grades and will remove the previous grade from GPA calculations. Students should consult their advisor about possible implications of Pass/Fail grading, including issues related to professional or accredited programs, transfer or graduate school credit acceptance and impact on GPA. See the COVID-19 Grading Advisement Guide for additional information. Students will select the Pass/Fail option on the MyPlattsburgh portal.

Course Withdrawal
The Course Withdrawal Policy is temporarily modified to allow additional flexibility. Unrestricted course withdrawal can be submitted until April 9, 2021; after this time, late course withdrawal requests should be sent directly to the respective dean’s office by May 14, 2021. See the Course Schedule Adjustment form.

College Withdrawal
College withdrawal for personal reasons is available until the last day of the semester, May 14, 2021. For information and assistance, contact the academic advising office and see the Policy on Withdrawal from College webpage.

Course Modalities

Information about how courses are to be taught is visible both in the course registration system (Banner) and in the student schedule view on the MyPlattsburgh portal. Course with a location code of WEB indicate the course or a portion of the course is online. Each type of instruction is listed separately, so students must pay attention to multiple lines that may appear with each course.

A sample view is included below. The following bullet points explain how to read such a view:

Face-to-face courses have a location indicating a building and will either have a campus of “Main” for the Plattsburgh campus or “Branch” for the Queensbury branch campus.
Face-to-face and web “hybrid” courses will include both in-person classes and online coursework. The class may be broken up into smaller groups that will attend on alternate days. There will be a line with a time and classroom location as well as a separate line with the location of WEB in the course listing.
Online Zoom courses will have days and times listed with a location of ZOOM. If a day and time is listed, students must log into Zoom at the designated day and time to participate, accessed through Moodle.
Online courses that do not have days and times listed are fully online; there are assignments and activities scheduled week-by-week that students must complete by certain deadlines, accessed through Moodle.

Here is a sample portal listing (note: the courses are not accurate with the fall schedule):

ANT102A — Face-to-face course on the Plattsburgh campus
CAS111WB1 — Fully online web course that was originally scheduled for online
ENG195A — Hybrid course; students will attend during some portion of the scheduled time according to information provided by the faculty and will complete some coursework online
ITA111A — Online remote course; students must attend scheduled virtual classes on Zoom
MGM315A — Face-to-face course on the Queensbury branch campus

Fall 2020
Grading Policy Changes
- Pass/Fail Option for ONE non-major course extended through December 17, 2020.
  The Pass/Fail Grading Policy is temporarily modified to permit the choice of a single non-major course for Pass/Fail grading. Courses that fulfill major and cognate requirements, ENG101 and graduate courses are not eligible for Pass/Fail. Students may opt in for Pass/Fail grading for a single course through December 17, 2020, one day following the due deadline for the submission of grades. A pass (P) grade may be selected for letter grades equivalent to a D or better. A pass grade is not calculated in semester or cumulative GPAs, however a fail grade is equivalent to an E and is counted in the GPA. Pass grades in repeated courses will be allowed to replace previously earned grades and will remove the previous grade from GPA calculations. Students should consult their advisor about possible implications of Pass/Fail grading, including issues related to professional or accredited programs, transfer or graduate school credit acceptance and impact on GPA. See the COVID-19 Grading Advisement Guide Fall 2020 for additional information. Students will select the Pass/Fail option on the MyPlattsburgh portal.
- Extension to Course Withdrawal and College Withdrawal Allowed through December 11, 2020.
  The Course Withdrawal Policy is temporarily modified to allow late course withdrawals with additional flexibility. Students should submit the Course Schedule Adjustment form directly to their respective dean’s office prior to December 11, 2020. For information on college withdrawal contact the academic advisement office. Additional information about college withdrawal for personal reasons is available on the Policy on Withdrawal from College webpage.
Spring 2020
In March 2020, SUNY Plattsburgh joined other colleges nationwide in moving to remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Course instruction was provided through the Moodle learning management system using a variety of modalities. Course instructors provided students with information about how the course was to proceed. Students could request help on Cardinal Star by raising the “I have a question about remote instruction due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak” flag. Academic advisement was available for students remotely.

For Spring 2020 only, SUNY Plattsburgh modified several grading policies in order to hold students harmless for the disruption caused by COVID-19.
- Pass/Fail Grading Policy — Students had the option to select pass/fail instead of standard letter grading in all undergraduate courses up until one day after final grades were submitted. The pass/fail option was not available for graduate courses. A pass (P) grade could be selected for letter grades equivalent to a D or better. A pass grade is not calculated in semester or cumulative GPAs, however a fail grade is equivalent to an E and is counted in the GPA. A pass grade met requirements for progression in programs and course prerequisites that required a grade of a C or better and was accepted in Advanced Writing Courses and ENG101 as meeting graduation requirements. Pass grades in repeated courses were allowed to replace previously earned grades and removed the previous grade from GPA calculations. Students were directed to the COVID-19 Grading Advisement Guide and to seek guidance from their academic advisors prior to selecting pass/fail grading. Exceptions were made related to the impact the number of credits of pass grades had on eligibility for graduation honors on a case-by-case basis.
- Course Withdrawal Policy — Temporary modifications allowed course withdrawals until the end of the semester without an additional extenuating circumstance. Course withdrawal fees were waived.
- Incomplete Grade Policy — The modifications allowed a student who completed less than 75 percent of the coursework the option to receive an incomplete grade. Students were required to complete the remaining work by the end of the Fall 2020 semester. In accordance with the policy, students who do not complete the coursework by the end of the subsequent semester will receive a grade of E.
- Repeated Course Grading Policy — This policy was modified to count the highest grade rather than the most recently earned grade, or the grade selected by the student.
- Academic Dismissal Policy — The Spring 2020 end-of-semester academic progress review process was suspended. Students whose cumulative GPAs fell below a 2.0 were automatically offered reinstatement on academic probation rather than dismissal. If a student opted to not accept the offer to return on probation, they were allowed to withdraw from college rather than be dismissed. Students on academic probation will be provided intensive support in the fall.
- Dean’s List — Due to emergency remote instruction, eligibility for the dean’s list in Spring 2020 required a minimum of 6 credits taken as standard letter grade for full time students.