Guidance on Academic Accommodations

Dear Faculty Colleagues, Department Chairs and Academic Deans:

As a follow-up to my message this past weekend, I am reaching out to you directly to provide recommendations on how to support protesting students to achieve their learning objectives. In consultation with the deans, I provide my guidance here for you to help these students to complete their classes without penalties related to their involvement in the protest, including excusing all absences, no penalties for assignments that were turned in late and providing reasonable accommodations for class assignments that are due in the next three weeks from the date of this message.

These academic accommodations apply to students who have been protesting at Crouse-Hinds Hall. A list of student names must be provided by the protesting student group to the provost’s office by March 20, 2020. These accommodations cover the period of Feb. 17 through March 13, 2020. Students requesting academic accommodations during this period should work with relevant faculty members who will verify the applicability against the list of names provided by the protesting student group to the provost’s office.

In addition to undergraduate students, a small number of graduate students stopped working as teaching assistants (TA) or in other roles in support of the protesting students. In some instances, their teaching sessions have been covered by hiring alternative instructors. Here I provide my guidance for you to avoid penalizing them for missed work from Feb. 17 through March 13, 2020. These graduate students should return to work after March 13, 2020, if they have not done so already. Returning TAs are to be paid continuously, including the period when they were not working as a TA, and are to be assigned to cover the same or similar responsibilities, consistent with their areas of study and expertise.

Maintaining the integrity of our courses is crucial to our academic mission. As you work with students who need to catch up on their courses, you should make every effort to ensure that all students attain the learning outcomes of your courses. I trust that you will all show great compassion in helping our students succeed.

John Liu
Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost