Short-term Illness Notification

Short-Term Illness Notification

The Trinity College class attendance policy recognizes that students may occasionally become incapacitated by a brief illness or injury and will be unable to attend class or complete a graded assignment or exam on time. In the latter case you are expected to notify your instructor (in advance if at all possible) that you cannot complete the work due to illness or injury. The Short-Term Illness Notification Form is provided for this purpose.

Procedures

The short-term illness notification procedure is based on these operating principles:

You are in the best position to judge whether you are too ill to complete an assignment or test at the designated time.
You will act in accordance with the Duke Community Standard.

The procedure can only be used to notify an instructor of an absence from a graded exercise in his/her class due to a short-term illness which has incapacitated you. It cannot be used to notify an instructor of an absence from a class in which there was no graded exercise or an absence not due to a short-term illness. Here's how it works:

Complete a secure online form (to be found at the end of these instructions) and submit it to a computer server. The server generates and sends an e-mail to your instructor, with copies sent to you and your academic dean. Consult the Registrar's ACES Web site to view your class schedule to obtain the name and number of the course and the name of the course instructor.
Send the notification to your instructor as soon as possible once you realize that your short-term illness has become incapacitating. Instructors expect you to submit the short-term illness form prior to the class in which the graded assignment is due or will occur.
Prior to, or as soon as possible after your return to class, meet with your course instructor to discuss accommodations in accordance with the course make-up policy.
Since your instructor may want to use the same graded exercise that the rest of the class has completed, you are obligated to avoid obtaining any information about that graded exercise that would give you an unfair advantage over other students taking the course.
Your electronic signature on the form affirms your compliance with the Duke Community Standard.

Short-Term Illness Notification Form (link to online form)

Note: Use of the short-term illness notification procedure is monitored and faculty are advised to bring to the attention of a student's academic dean any instances in which the instructor believes the student may be abusing the procedure. In cases of suspected abuse of the system the dean may refer the matter to the Undergraduate Judicial Board for investigation.

A note about the final exam period: Given the time limitations inherent in completing end-of-semester assignments or making up a missed final exam, this procedure cannot be used during the final exam period. You are expected to take final examinations at the scheduled times and to complete end-of-semester work by the deadlines set by the instructor unless an extraordinary circumstance interferes. If you encounter an extraordinary circumstance during exam week, contact your academic dean directly as soon as possible, preferably before the scheduled assignment or exam.