All policies regarding obtaining an excused absence are outlined below and on the course syllabus. Please note that any request for an excused absence not done according to the guidelines below may result in that request being denied.

The "Official Excuse Request Form" can be downloaded and printed via the following URL's or picked up in person from the folders outside the TA office hour room (1151 AVW) or directly from the head grading TA:

http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc214/Admin/oerf.html 
[HTML format]
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc214/Admin/oerf.doc  
[Microsoft Word Document] 

Note that any requests for an excused absence must be submitted as soon as physically possible (which is defined as no more than one week from the class period in which you are physically able to resume attending school).

Excused Absence Request Procedure:

See the course syllabus for the official details as to what constitutes a valid excuse and what accommodations are made for excused absences.

1. Print out and complete the "Official Excuse Request Form" and attach to it (either with a staple or paper clip) a photocopy of any and all documentation verifying your absence (see the class syllabus for what constitutes acceptable documentation).

2. Turn in the material from step 1 to either the head grading TA (during any of their posted office hours), your lab section TA (after class only), or your instructor (after class only).

3. The head grading TA will then review and process your excused absence request. Upon evaluating your request the head grading TA will email your class account with the result of that evaluation. In addition the head grading TA will return a copy of the evaluated "Official Excuse Request Form" to the teaching TA of the lab section for which you are registered who will then return it in the next lab section.

   Note: the fastest way to have an excuse request form processed is to bring that form in person to the head grading TA during any of their posted advising hours.

4. If you have any question concerning an excused absence request you must see the head grading TA in person during any of their posted advising hours. The instructors of the course will not answer any excuse related questions until after you have filled out and received back the "Official Excuse Request Form".

If you are requesting an extension on a project - do not wait for the extension to be approved before continuing to work on the project - meaning you should continue to work on your project whenever you are physically capable of doing so (and submitting whatever you can ontime, 1 day late, and 2 days late). Also, if you work on your project external to your class account (meaning it is stored somewhere other than in your class account), at least twice a day (once anytime in the morning and once again anytime in the afternoon) you should place an updated copy of your project into your class account - as this is the only reliable way we can retrieve copies of your files from specific days - failure to do this may result in no extension being granted.

If you have filed an excuse request form for an extension on a project and it is not approved you may choose to have whichever assignment you turned in graded (either the ontime version, 1 day late version, or 2 day late version) - note that if you submit nothing then you will receive a zero for that assignment (assuming the extension request is not approved).

Only the student who the excuse is for may make any such request. At first this may seem like an unreasonable policy, but in fact it is not - why? Because if someone is physically incapable of submitting the request (for example they are in the hospital recovering from food poisoning) then the chances are near 100% their excuse will be accepted - and the details of that can be straightened out when they are physically able to return to school - notifying us any sooner will not help any (as there is no way to determine the length of the excused absence until the student is better and able to make the request themself - and they will be required (no matter what is done before hand) to do this when they return to class, so contacting us in advance, in a case like this, only creates additional unnecessary work) and instead your time and effort should be spent on making sure the student in question gets better and school should be a secondary concern at most - we will make accommodations for a student who is unable to attend class due to a valid excuse.

Head Grading TA:

The Head Grading TA for this course is Alex Grushin and her office hours can be found on the "Who's Who" class webpage.

Academic Honesty and Additional Information:

Please see the class syllabus for additional information/policies and remember that the University has a Code of Academic Integrity by which all students are expected to abide and any suspected violations of this code will be turned in to the University per University regulation.

See the class syllabus for policies concerning email Last Modified: Friday September 6, 2002