Sam Pickett ‘21
Columns Editor
Following UVA Law’s complete transition to online classes, students were left wondering how they would be evaluated for Spring 2020. Fortunately, on Wednesday, March 25, Dean Goluboff announced that courses would be graded on a C/NC basis. What does that mean exactly? It means that rather than being graded on academic performance, which is usually the case, students will be graded on whether they Can do (C) various viral Instagram challenges, or whether they No Can do them (NC).
The Dean endorsed a plan proposed by UVA Law’s Curriculum Committee, which recommended the change because “A C/NC system serves the function of assuring baseline competence [with societal norms and physical fitness]” and because “a C/NC system also seems to be better than any of the available alternatives.” It also allows professors to grade students in a way that is most consistent with how they’re likely spending most of their time these days.[1]
After surveying the internet, the Dean has decided to base students’ grades based on how well they perform in the following challenges:
(1) The Ten Push-up Challenge
In this challenge, students who are tagged by their friends must perform ten push-ups on their Instagram story and then tag another group of friends to do the challenge. While there may be a global pandemic threatening to destroy the world, UVA Law believes in encouraging active lifestyles by grading you at least in part on physical fitness. How low are you going on your push-ups? How quickly are you performing them? Are you doing something clever while doing them, like eating a bag of chips? Please note that the Dean also stated,“If you do one-handed push-ups, you will be punished for being a show-off and will be docked points for not following directions.”
(2) See a Shot, Take a Shot
Similar to the push-up challenge, in this challenge, students take a shot of alcohol after being tagged by their friends. UVA Law values nothing if not connecting students to Big Law and showing off how it is not like a regular soul-sucking law school, but a fun, soul-sucking law school. By making students take shots at home and tag their friends, the Law School is testing its students’ professional networking skills and ability to fit in with UVA Law’s culture. No one wants to be the associate who “can’t hang” when the partner starts ordering rounds of tequila shots at the firm-hosted happy hour.
(3) Fill-in Templates
In this challenge, students receive a blank template that they fill in with some of their favorite things, like favorite TV shows, favorite color, favorite clothing item, etc. This is a way for UVA Law to judge your personality and to see how basic you are. Are your preferences the same as everyone else between the ages of 22-25? If so, you may struggle on this test! Good news, this is also the perfect time to develop some new interests and hobbies. Start working through some Netflix shows so you have a quirky, memorable answer the next time you’re tagged.
(4) Drawing a Carrot (or other random vegetable)
In this challenge, students must attempt to draw a carrot on their Instagram stories after being tagged by their friends. This is a way for UVA Law to test your creativity—instead of coming up with clever solutions to fact patterns, can you somehow navigate Instagram’s features in order to draw a carrot with your finger? Can you make the carrot do something funny, like wear sunglasses or a hat? Fun additions like these are certain to earn you extra points and help you to stand out from the thousands of carrot drawings the school will have to look at.
Pictured: Of all vegetables, why a carrot? Photo Courtesy of Maria Luevano ‘21.
So while some students saw the change to C/NC as an excuse to relax and do less work, they have failed to realize the work this requires. These challenges are also useful for grading students on their “social capital”—do people care enough about you to challenge you to do some horrendous physical exercise or draw a carrot using your finger? Looks like all of you who were holding out on social media[2] “because you don’t need that distraction” or because you “don’t need validation from others” or because you “value human connections instead of internet ones” are out of luck. Best get posting.
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