University of Manitoba faculty ratifies wage agreement; strike off table for 2020 “What happened in the winter of 2020 was students were able to select one of three options — keep your grade, exclude it from the GPA or take it as a pass or fail, and that was available for all their classes,” said Kristin Smith, UMSU’s vice president of advocacy.“Online learning in the fall simply hasn’t improved enough from when COVID first hit us in the winter.”The proposal went to the university’s COVID-19 steering committee Thursday, a communications staffer said in an email.Meanwhile, Brandon University introduced a compassionate grading system this week.“A student who obtains a satisfactory standing grade on a course can convert that letter grade.