Michigan’s Pass/No Credit Pilot Is Suspended. The Mental Health Debate Shouldn’t Be.

Photo Credit: Scott C. Soderberg, Michigan Photography

On September 28^th, 2026, the University of Michigan officially suspended its new LSA pass/no credit pilot program—all contained in a letter sent to LSA’s leadership written by President Grasso. Originally announced in August of 2026, the program would have made freshman students in Michigan’s college of Literature, Science, and the Arts receive either a ‘pass’ or ‘no credit’ in all first semester courses, replacing the traditional letter grade system. Obviously, the program was not without controversy: President Grasso directly outlines the “extensive media coverage, much of which consists of distorted narratives about our intentions and, most concerningly, about the academic strength and resilience of our students”.

Though the Michigan Daily’s coverage was brief, I believe this decision holds a large amount of weight for both students here at Michigan and the higher education sphere as a whole. Firstly, this is not the first academic protocol of its kind. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has all freshman students in their first semester under a pass/fail system, a policy which has been in place since 1968. Additionally, Brown University allows all students freedom to choose how their course grades are portrayed: either as an A/B/C/no credit, or satisfactory/no credit for nearly all classes. We see more conservative versions of Brown’s policy all across college campuses today. So, given MIT’s near 60-year policy and other colleges’ course grade freedoms, why was the University of Michigan’s policy so controversial?