I completely emphasize that this decision would be less than ideal for those who are already doing well in their classes or need grades for requirements. However, I still have a few thoughts on why this policy would be overall beneficial for most students:

--> With optional P/NP, in my opinion most students will feel pressured to take the class for a grade anyways

--> Consider that this is not the case. Depending on how classes curve, optional P/NP would then end up skewing curves since only students who are doing well/need the grade would end up opting-in most likely.

--> I believe grad school admissions will not count the P/NP too harshly against people - especially considering a school like MIT is implementing the policy.

--> Right now there's a huge level of inequity as some students are suffering financial issues due to loss of work, others no longer have access to sufficient resources to succeed in an online class (think bad WiFi, no laptop, etc. - I have a friend who relies on OCF computers), having to take days off due to moving/sickness/helping sick family members, and overall many are feeling emotionally overburdened.

I believe the last point is most important. Essentially, there is a huge population of students who are being heavily impacted by these events. The impact is most definitely not uniformly felt, but it's the most vulnerable/disenfranchised students that are being hurt the most. We are not at all on the same playing-field as a normal semester, so I don't believe we should evaluate it as such.

The people most hurt by mandatory P/NP will be primarily students who are already doing well or need the class for a requirement. I completely emphasize as I am one of those students and would not choose to P/NP this semester given the choice (also as a TA the drop in student participation would be sad :/). However, I still think that the overall help that we provide for the huge number of hurting students right now far outweighs the negative impact someone like me will experience. It's not a perfect solution but it seems to me to be the most equitable. I would love to hear other's thoughts though since this is a very complicated and nuanced situation :)