John “Skip” Crooker and Qingmin Shi (both Decision Support), in collaboration with Celeste Calkins (Illinois State University), published an empirical study in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, titled “Examining the Relationship Between Grading Leniency and Reliability During the COVID Shock.” The study investigates how faculty grading practices and student effort shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the context of student-friendly grading policies implemented during this period.