Faculty Assembly

October 12, 2001 Faculty Representative Assembly meeting

The following is a DRAFT of a letter concerning excused absences for athletes attending officially sanctioned athletic events. The IAAC would like your feedback regarding this policy letter. Please contact Charlie Shub with your comments.

To all instructors of The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student athletes:

As a result of this University’s commitment to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, athletic contests are now being scheduled by the conference and not our own coaching staff.  Since this arrangement may require that student athletes be excused from scheduled classes, particularly on Fridays when travel is required, I am sending you this letter about the issue of absences necessitated by scheduled athletic events.

There is no formal policy mandating that participation in scheduled athletic events must be treated as an excused absence for the student athlete. However, the student athlete is representing the institution in an officially sanctioned event.

This participation does not excuse the athlete from either mastering the material covered during the missed class nor from turning in assignments at the scheduled time.

In the interest of achieving a clear understanding and agreement between faculty and student athletes, the student athlete is expected to submit to each academic instructor on the first day of class in a semester the schedule of athletic events, given to the student by the coach and authorized by that coach, that will force the student to miss a particular class. (The particular class[es] should be highlighted on the schedule by the student.)

This gives the instructor the opportunity to tell the student whether such an arrangement is satisfactory and what adjustments the student will have to make to successfully complete the course. In addition, the student is expected to remind the instructor in writing a week in advance of each missed class that a particular class will be missed and to ask what work can be done to compensate for the missed class.

It is understood that in the event of post-season tournaments for which the schedule cannot be predicted at the beginning of a semester the athletic department will provide instructors with schedules as soon as possible.

If a post season tournament match is scheduled in conflict with a final exam, that student should not be penalized for missing the exam, but it is up to the discretion of the individual instructor to determine how the student can complete the final exam requirement.

In any case, if the instructor finds that the athletic demands are excessive for a particular course, the student should be advised of this well in advance of the end of the drop/add period so that the student can find another course.

I would appreciate being apprised of such a decision as well so that I might facilitate prevention of a repeat occurrence in the future.

Coaches have told me that they are eager to hear from instructors about the progress of their student athletes mid especially about academic problems that could become serious. I would also like to offer my services in helping to facilitate communication between academics and athletics. Coaches can be reached at the telephone number accompanying this letter. My e-mail is cdash@cs.uccs.edu and my campus telephone number is 719-255-3492 (184 Engineering). My home phone number is in the telephone book.

Charlie Shub -  University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

cdash@cs.uccs,edu                    http://cs.uccs.edu/~cdash
(719) 255-3492                     (fax) 255-3369