The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the education system in ways never seen before and has forced many educators to make difficult decisions on how to safely provide higher education to college and university students over the last year. Many students have experienced financial instability, decreased access to learning materials or negatively impacted mental health. For others, online learning has been a difficult transition, as many people simply do not learn well under the more impersonal and distant nature of video-based education. To alleviate the impact of these issues, many public colleges in New Jersey have decided to implement special grading policies to allow students to modify their class grades.
The implementation of the such special grading policies (often referred to as Pass/Fail or P/F options) has been incredibly varied. Some schools have provided unlimited Pass/Fail for all their classes, some have made it an option for a fixed number of classes and others have restricted it by the effect that class has on one’s major. The chart below outlines the differences in Pass/Fail responses among many New Jersey public schools over the past three semesters.
| Colleges and Universities | Spring 2020 Response | Fall 2020 Reponse | Spring 2021 Response |
| The College of New Jersey | All Classes P/F Ungraded Option Policy | No Classes P/F Ungraded Option Policy: Up to four electives P/F | No Classes P/F Ungraded Option Policy: Up to four electives P/F |
| Kean University | 2 Classes P/F | 2 Classes P/F | No Info on P/F |
| Montclair State University | All Classes P/F Only undergrad | 1 Class P/F Doesn’t apply to many courses | No Info on P/F |
| New Jersey City University | P/F already existed following certain guidelines | P/F already existed following certain guidelines | P/F already existed following certain guidelines |
| New Jersey Institute of Technology | All Classes P/F | 2 Classes P/F | 1 Class P/F |
| Ramapo College | All Classes P/F | No Info on P/F | No Info on P/F |
| Rowan University | All Classes P/F Except for some grad programs | All Classes P/F Except for some grad programs | All Classes P/F Except for some grad programs |
| Rutgers New Brunswick | All Classes P/F | All Classes P/F | All Classes P/F |
| Rutgers Newark | All Classes P/F Not applicable for law students | All Classes P/F Not applicable for law students | All Classes P/F Not applicable for law students |
| Rutgers Camden | All Classes P/F | All Classes P/F | All Classes P/F |
