The Graduate Employees’ Organization has concluded the fifth week of their strike, withholding their labor as they continue to demand that the University of Michigan engage in good faith bargaining and respect the union’s call for a living wage. The University also recently concluded the academic period of the winter term and the distribution of final exams has been completed. As such, there is now one outstanding matter more consequential to this fight than any other: grades.
With the semester quickly coming to a close, the main priority for the University is to ensure that students have their grades finalized and put in their gradebooks, no matter the cost. Much of this grading is usually performed by Graduate Student Instructors, many of whom are currently on strike. In response to this, the University has begun employing replacement (“scab”) labor to input grades simply to check an academic box, grades that are unrepresentative of actual performance or GSI evaluation. These “bullshit grades” are often determined by department chairs or other faculty who had no prior involvement with the classes they’re now assigning grades for. They don’t know the students and they don’t know their work. These grades do not and cannot actually reflect a student’s performance in the class. Speaking as undergraduate students that have experienced this dynamic first-hand, we are telling you: please reject these bullshit grades.
We understand the impulsive desire to see a grade on your Canvas page regardless of who put it there, but it is important to remember that a small delay in grading is worth the transformational change a GEO victory will inevitably grant our University community. Rejecting these bullshit grades does not pose any real risk to us as undergraduate students, contrary to what the University’s administration has been claiming in an attempt to undermine the strike. The grading delay is akin to a delay in finalizing your transcript, meaning it does not affect your academic standing or grade point average whatsoever.
Beyond that, accepting these bullshit grades will create harmful outcomes for students across our campus. When grades being put in are solely meant to check a box rather than to reflect overall performance and understanding of course material, a major disservice is done to students. They are given a grade that does not speak to their involvement in the course and, as such, misrepresents them entirely. In some cases, this can lead to lower overall grades for some students, while others are prevented from using a final exam to boost their final grade due to a mass cancellation of finals by professors. The rush to input percentage points and letter values leaves no room for actual written feedback, relegating students to the unknown when trying to understand why they received the grade that they did. Feedback is a vital component of academic success, as it allows students to effectively evaluate their strengths along with their points of improvement.
Bullshit grades will only serve to further taint any remaining reputation of academic excellence at the University that hasn’t already been eroded by their egregious mishandling of the strike and other student resistance initiatives. There is little honor in flaunting academic excellence built upon a fabricated grading cycle, especially when it is one that is rather inconsistent and unrepresentative of student skills. Additionally, many classes at the University hardly afford students any opportunities to talk to professors, let alone be properly evaluated by them. GSIs are the only instructional staff who truly understand student progress within a course because they interact with them regularly. That being the case, why should we lend any credence to the assessment of a tenured professor whose student interactions rarely go beyond biweekly lectures, as opposed to the special care and expertise that GSIs provide to the grading process?
We as undergraduate students call on the University of Michigan to cease the implementation of bullshit grades and honor the demands of GSIs — and graduate student workers more broadly — who work tirelessly to promote better working and learning conditions for our University community. However, if history is any indication of the University’s moral compass (or lack thereof), we understand that it is our duty as allies and fellow change-makers to do right by our graduate student workers when our University won’t.
Join us in solidarity and reject bullshit grades. If you’re a faculty member or lecturer, do not input bullshit grades in lieu of striking GSIs. If you’re an undergraduate student, contact your professors and ensure that they do not engage in scab labor and input bullshit grades as a result.
Juan Gonzalez Valdivieso is a recent Music, Theatre & Dance graduate and can be reached at senauj@umich.edu. Zaynab Elkolaly is an Engineering senior and can be reached at zaynab@umich.edu.