Students at Oberlin College were so concerned that activism was taking up so much of their time, they campaigned to abolish any grades below a “C” and replace their midterms, according to a report this week.
More than 1,300 students at the Ohio liberal arts college signed a petition to remove the grades, reported The New Yorker.
“More than thirteen hundred students signed a petition calling for the college to eliminate any grade lower than a C for the semester, but to no avail,” the New Yorker profile explains.
A writer of the petition explained her reasoning, saying activism should be supported.
“Students felt really unsupported in their endeavors to engage with the world outside Oberlin,” Megan Bautista told The New Yorker.
Schoolwork, familial problems, and probation also provide barriers to their activism, another student said.
“Because I’m dealing with having been arrested on campus, or having to deal with the things that my family are going through because of larger systems—having to deal with all of that, I can’t produce the work they want me to do,” student Zakiya Acey said, adding that “I understand the material, and I can give it to you in different ways.”
