3.2.1 Changing the Final Exam Group

Instructors are expected to hold final exams for their courses at the regular date and time published in the Final Exam Schedule. Under exceptional circumstances, a change to the final exam group for a course may be requested. To maintain fairness and consistency across campus, COCI will only approve requests for exam group changes under exceptional circumstances and the instructor is required to explain the reason for the request. Note that accommodation of individual students or small groups of students with religious or other conflicts does not require COCI approval. If a graduate course has a final exam, COCI does not need to approve any changes to the final exam schedule, but the department should notify Classroom Scheduling at scheduling@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) (see section 2.1.3).

If an instructor feels his or her course falls within the category of exceptional circumstances and wishes to request a change of exam group for a particular semester, then a Petition for Final Exam Group Change should be submitted to COCI. The petition is available at http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/committees/coci/. COCI should receive petitions at least two weeks before the beginning of instruction for the affected course. If the petition is received too late to review before instruction begins, COCI may still grant approval; however, the instructor will be required to hold the final exam at the originally scheduled exam group time as well as at the new exam group time. COCI will not consider petitions received after the fifth week of instruction. In addition, the Office of the Registrar’s classroom scheduling staff must confirm that space is available for the requested exam group. This should be indicated on the petition form.