Guidelines Concerning Scheduling Conflicts with Academic Requirements
2023
These guidelines focus on the handling of conflicts that arise between extra-curricular activities and academic requirements, and specifically concern the schedules of student athletes, student musicians, those with out-of-town interviews, and other students with campus-sponsored activities that compete with academic obligations. The basic premise is that students—while often deeply engaged with other activities—are at the university primarily to achieve academic goals. Additionally, faculty members’ individual judgments about the pedagogical needs of their courses should be respected.
The Scheduling of Extra-curricular Activities
Many extra-curricular activities in which students are participants arrange their performances, matches, debates, practices, and rehearsals outside the hours students are expected to be in class or taking final examinations. This is the preferred arrangement. When such activities are scheduled at times that classes and examinations are regularly scheduled, students should be notified of that schedule (and of potential additional late-scheduled obligations such as tournaments and special performances) before they enroll in their classes for the term in question.
Those music directors, coaches, and others scheduling activities for students should seek to minimize the number of conflicts and impact on regularly scheduled classes and examinations.
Course Syllabus
The Academic Senate requires that every course have an associated syllabus that outlines the requirements for the course and what students will be expected to do to pass, as well as a chronological schedule of topics, usually in a week-by-week format. All major examinations, papers, project due dates, and field trips should be on the course syllabus and available to students on the first day of class (or earlier if practicable). Instructors teaching courses that are structured so that this early notice is impossible or undesirable should accept the burden of accommodating students who have conflicts and who have notified their instructor of those conflicts in a timely manner.
When circumstances change unexpectedly, resulting in event schedules changing during the semester, the music director, coach, or other person scheduling the changed activity should consult the students involved to determine whether there will be any classroom conflicts and whether they can be resolved. The organizers should accept that students with unresolvable conflicts may not be able to participate in the rescheduled event.
Notification of Conflicts
It is the student’s responsibility to inform the instructor (or designated teaching assistant), in writing, before the end of the second week of term of all foreseeable conflicts between the syllabus (classes, examinations, project due dates, field trips) and scheduled practices, matches, games, potential tournaments, interview weeks, performances, and other activities in which the student will be participating (or might be participating) that would require absence from academic activities during the semester, as well as to provide a proposal for resolving these conflicts. If unforeseen conflicts arise during the course of the semester students must promptly notify the instructor and arrange to discuss the situation as soon as these conflicts (or the possibility of these conflicts) are known.
Similarly, if music directors, coaches, and others who arrange these activities have stated policies concerning mandatory attendance, punctuality, and participation, students involved in these activities must also notify these individuals by the second week of term concerning academic conflicts or potential conflicts. If a mutually satisfactory arrangement is not possible, the student may be dropped from the roster of that activity.
Missed Classes
When occasional conflicts arise, and the student has notified the instructor at the outset of the semester, including a statement concerning the proposed handling of the situation (e.g., attending an alternative section one week) and discussed the matter with the instructor or designated teaching assistant, the instructor should try to accommodate the student.
Students should be aware that, because of internal requirements (such as activities requiring students to work in specific teams during class time, special resource-use, and similar necessities), instructors may decline to enroll students in a class who cannot be present at all scheduled activities.
On the other hand, policies to instructor-drop students who miss a class during the first weeks of class should not be applied to students who have proposed adjustments for those missed classes. The purpose of those policies is to drop students who are not intending to actually take the class. Students who have proposed adjustments have demonstrated that they intend to take the class.
Students are responsible for material covered during missed classes whether or not they have been formally excused; therefore, it is the student’s responsibility to inform themselves about the material missed. It is not the instructor’s or the teaching assistant’s responsibility to tutor students in missed material. For this reason, it is recommended that students absent from class for any reason make timely contact with several other students in the class to arrange for thorough briefing on the material they missed. In courses that allow for Course Capture, instructors should consider using it to facilitate the capturing of lectures for students who have conflicts.
Assignments
Students whose off-campus events conflict with the due dates of projects, assignments, and such must arrange to have their work in the hands of instructors before they leave campus so that it can be evaluated and graded with the work of their cohort, unless the instructor has agreed in advance to other arrangements.
Examination Conflicts
Making up and proctoring examinations for individual students (or groups of students) is a workload issue for instructors. For student-athletes, the Athletic Study Center is an independent organization within the Division of Undergraduate Education which can, in many circumstances, provide suitable proctoring services. For more information on these resources, see https://asc.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/exam_proctoring_policies_guidelines_2022.pdf.
General
The pedagogical needs of the course are the key criteria when deciding whether a proposed adjustment is appropriate. Faculty must clearly articulate the specific pedagogical reasons that prevent accepting a proposed adjustment. Absent such a reason, the presumption should be that adjustments are to be made.
If, in the opinion of the instructor, the student’s list of foreseeable conflicts reveals multiple unresolvable scheduling conflicts, the student may be advised to find another class that better accommodates their priorities. If systematic or frequent unresolved conflicts are evident, the instructor may drop the student from the course.
Conclusion
These guidelines are designed to foster communication between students, instructors, teaching assistants, and the professional staffs that orchestrate extra-curricular activities in which UCB students participate. With the timely attention of instructors, students, coaches, and others to scheduling on the one hand, and notification of potential conflicts on the other, difficulties and misunderstanding can be avoided and learning will be facilitated.
If a satisfactory solution cannot be found, the student and instructor should refer the situation to the Departmental Chair and/or The Ombuds Office for Students and Postdoctoral Appointees. The Chair is responsible for ensuring that cases are treated consistently and fairly across the Department. The Ombuds Office for Students and Postdoctoral Appointees and, for student-athletes, the Faculty Athletic Representative can facilitate communication between the student and instructor.
Originated by the Committee on Educational Policy (2005). Revised by the Undergraduate Council (2023).