Dear Colleagues:

A year ago, for the first time in memory, GVSU moved to remote status during Finals Week. It was necessary to invoke procedures posted on the Office of the Provost site and reschedule some final exams to Saturday. With the wintery weather of the past several days, I wanted to report on updates to these procedures, anticipating final exams next week.

This fall, based on a request from Provost Drake, the Academic Policies and Standards Committee (APSC) drafted a revision to our procedures. That draft has been reviewed by ECS and will be considered by UAS this Friday. If UAS votes affirmatively on the revision, Provost Drake will approve immediately, and the following procedures will go into effect (emphasis is mine):

In the event of a cancellation, closure, significant interruption in technology, or remote status on a specified exam day, faculty who are able to modify their exams to allow for online, take-home, alternate times, or other equitable arrangements for all students may do so. Faculty have an obligation to provide an option to students to be examined in the manner described in the syllabus. In the event of a cancellation or closure, whatever decision is made by an instructor must be communicated in a timely manner to students and the instructor’s unit head. Faculty should be flexible in allowing individual students to make alternative schedule arrangements if necessary; however, the due date of the final exam cannot be earlier than the date and time assigned for the course in the final exam schedule and cannot be after the exam period has closed. In the event that an exam that requires physical space cannot be rescheduled earlier in the week, that exam will be held on the Friday of exam week. If, and only if, two exam days were affected, some exams that require physical space may be held on the Saturday following exam week. Students requiring disability-related accommodations will continue to receive appropriate support, and instructors should coordinate as needed with Student Accessibility Resources to ensure accessibility.

Please advise your students of the slim possibility that these procedures will need to be invoked. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely, 

Ed Aboufadel
Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs