End of Term Message

Nov. 22, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

This message is to remind you of several academic policies that may affect your course planning, grading, and exam schedules for Fall 2021. This message covers the following topics:

Academic Council COVID-related Expectations
The Academic Council Expectations for Fall 2021 can be found here. These expectations guide how instructors are to handle absences and missing coursework or exams for Fall 2021.

Accessible Education Center (AEC) and Accommodations
Instructors have the responsibility to ensure full access for students with disabilities by responding to a student's need or request for accommodations as outlined here. Students with approved accommodations should present you with a notification letter from AEC. If they request an accommodation but do not have a notification letter, refer them to AEC.

Incompletes
Posted grades must represent an assessment of the work accomplished by the student in the course. An incomplete may be issued when the quality of work is satisfactory, but some minor yet essential requirement has not been completed. Instructors have leeway to determine if the quality of work is satisfactory and what constitutes a minor yet essential requirement given the challenges presented by the COVID pandemic. Details about the incomplete option are available on the Office of the Registrar website.

Registered students who did not attend or participate in any part of a course
For registered students who did not attend or participate, an F or N grade should be recorded in Duckweb, and the “non-attendance” box should be checked. Do not check the box if the students attended or participated in any portion of the course. Enter a Last Date of Attendance (LDA) instead.

Attendance and religious observances
The University of Oregon is committed to compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, and regulations relating to religious accommodations of its stakeholders, and respects the right of all students and employees to observe their religious holidays. Faculty and staff will make reasonable accommodations, upon request, for such observances. Students that need to be absent from a class for religious obligation or observance reasons had to make arrangements with instructors by the end of the second week of the term by completing the Student Religious Accommodation Request form found on this page (https://registrar.uoregon.edu/calendars/religious-observances).

You can use the Religious Observances Calendar to identify events, classes, exams, or UO activities that may intersect with religious observances.

Dead Week and Final Exams
Faculty legislation controls assignments that may be required during the last week (Week 10) of regular classes, commonly known as Dead Week, and final exam policies.In the week preceding final examinations during fall, winter, and spring terms

  • No examination worth more than 20% of the final grade will be given, apart from make-up examinations
  • No final examinations will be given under any guise.
  • No projects will be due unless they have been clearly specified on the class syllabus within the first two weeks of the term.
  • Take-home examinations will be due no earlier than the day of the formally assigned final examination for the class in question.

Exam Conflicts (not including Law students)If a student is scheduled for two or more exams at the same time, the following procedures assist with resolving the conflict:

  • For regular courses with examinations scheduled at the same time, the course with the largest enrollment must provide an alternate examination;
  • For conflicts between regular courses and combined examinations, the combined examination course must provide the alternate examination;
  • For combined examinations with conflicts, the largest combined enrollment course must provide the alternate examination.

Students unable to resolve examination conflicts with their instructors may contact the Office of Academic Advising for assistance.

Law students should not contact their UO Law School course instructor over an exam conflict because the law school uses an anonymous grading system for its exams. Law students who have exam conflicts should immediately submit an Exam Change Request form in MyLaw or contact the Law School’s Student Affairs Office.

Athletic Event travel, Post-season Contests and Final Exams
A reminder that athletic team travel may result in student participants (student-athletes, cheerleaders, band members, etc.) in athletic events missing classes in terms when their sport is in season. Because they are traveling for university-sponsored activities, faculty are strongly encouraged to make pedagogically sound and justifiable accommodations that will enable the students to be successful in the classroom, just as we would encourage such accommodations for other students traveling on university-sponsored activities. Students are given a letter to share with instructors at the beginning of every term that reports when they will be traveling. It is the student’s responsibility to share this letter with their instructors and to discuss travel conflicts in time to arrange for appropriate accommodations. Under no circumstances should the instructor offer an accommodation that is pedagogically unsound or that would be unavailable to other students. It is especially important that student-athletes in NCAA governed sports are not provided academic extra benefits. See policy here.

In addition, each term there may be UO athletic teams with a strong possibility of being invited to post-season competitions. These athletic events provide a legitimate excuse for student participants (e.g. team members, cheerleaders, band members, etc.) to be absent from regularly scheduled exams.

Students are encouraged to speak with their instructors prior to the athletic event to arrange for the completion of course work and final examinations in the case of such anticipated absences. For procedural recommendations, please review the Office of the Provost website.

Potential NCAA post-season conflicts for fall 2021:

  • Football
  • Women's Volleyball

Further Information
If you have questions about these policies, or are faced with a situation you are unable to resolve, please contact us at OtP@uoregon.edu.

 

Sincerely,

Janet Woodruff-Borden
Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs