At the end of Nov. 2020, I had 32 convocation points. During that fall semester, I earned a total of four points. You can imagine my gratitude when EMU’s administration decided to allot students 7 “grace” points.
Before the spring semester started, I knew I wanted to go to as many convocations during the first two weeks as possible. I looked at the upcoming eligible events and hit the jackpot: Jan. 18, MLK Day. We had no classes that day, and since it was the start of the semester, I hadn’t inevitably fallen behind in my classes yet. While I didn’t attend all the events, I did Zoom in to most of them, earning 10 points.
During my first year at EMU, I recall thinking convocation points were dumb, but they hadn’t become the big inconvience that they are now. Plus, the program was already in place when I enrolled; I wasn’t aware of what campus norms were like before it.
EMU students in their third year and below are required to get 80 convocation points to graduate; senior students are also required to get points, but not as many. Luckily, I’m in my second year, so I still have two years to get in my remaining 31 points. For a standard four-year degree (eight semesters), students should be earning an average of 10 points per semester.
I earned the majority of my points during my first year at EMU when I was living on campus, and COVID-19 hadn’t plagued us yet; those particular circumstances made it especially easy to get points. Despite enjoying and benefitting from many of the events I’ve been to so far, I still believe they are an unnecessary added stress for students, especially during the current pandemic. We don’t have to get rid of the events to get rid of the graduation requirement that comes with them.
On top of surviving and at least trying to thrive during a pandemic of COVID-19 and racism, even students with only one major and minor have to suffer the consequences academically. That being said, I understand EMU’s desire for the program, as convocations add a unique aspect to learning on campus.
However, as a university with a well-established Peacebuilding Institution and one that lists peacebuilding as a core value of the community, shouldn’t EMU be making degrees more accessible rather than less accessible? Even as the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end (hopefully), Americans will be dealing with results for months and years to come.
Considering that and the decline in students’ mental health, EMU’s administration and subsequently the convocation committee needs to consider ways of making convocation points more accessible and easy to earn, postponing the program and its graduation requirement, supplementing enough points to make up for the three semesters affected by COVID-19 thus far (30 points minus the current amount of “grace” points), or abolishing the requirement for all students who have been in school during COVID-19.
