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The following message was sent to faculty on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021. 

Dear Colleagues,

Many of our students, faculty and staff and their families were affected in various ways by the historic storms Friday evening. For some, these effects will necessarily continue into finals week. Students could be experiencing significant injuries or deaths within their households or other circumstances, which the instructor of record would reasonably find cause for absence (Senate Rule 5.2.5.2).

We want to remind instructors of their responsibility for evaluating the reasonableness of the students’ causes for absence and encourage instructors to exercise this responsibility thoughtfully and generously given the severity of these storms.

The way a student’s absence during finals week is excused is also a matter of some instructor discretion. To help instructors understand their options, we worked together to propose the following considerations:

  • Instructors may arrange for students to complete a final exam via an alternative format (e.g., online). 
  • Instructors may work with affected students to establish a later final exam or submission date. If feasible, this date would fall within the semester. 
  • If the date will fall later than necessary to meet the grading deadline for the semester (Dec. 20 at 5:00 pm), the student may request an I (incomplete) grade (Senate Rule 5.1.2.2). 
  • It should be noted that students cannot graduate with an I grade on their transcripts, so instructors should inform students of this prior to agreeing to assign an I grade.
  • The instructor may not elect to simply calculate the student's grade on the basis of the other course requirements, unless the student agrees in writing. Senate Council encourages instructors to use this discretion to the benefit of our affected students.

We hope this helps, and we are always available to answer questions as we work together to get through this challenging time.

Robert DiPaola (MD), Acting Provost

Aaron Cramer, Senate Council Chair