If a student is unable to attend a required academic event (e.g. clerkship day, quiz, exam, lab), student must seek an Excused Absence approval from the Department of Student Affairs or the Department of Clinical Education by completing the Excused Absence Request Form prior to the required session, except in cases of emergency where proactive communication is not possible. Examples of situations which would generally be approved for an Excused Absence from a required event include significant mental, emotional, or physical illness, emergency, or presentation at a professional conference.
Examples of situations that would generally not be approved for an Excused Absence from a required event include weddings, graduations, or religious holidays.
Students seeking an excused absence for a medical reason must provide a signed note from a licensed medical provider indicating they were seen/treated. Family members may not provide a note in support of excused absence requests.
If a student is absent from a required event and does not submit the appropriate Excused Absence Request Form in advance or if the request is not approved by the Department of Student Affairs or the Department of Clinical Education, the student will receive a grade of zero for that event.
If an absence is appropriately excused, a student will be allowed to make-up the required activity/exam or participate in an equivalent session. In order to take an examination at any time other than the originally scheduled time (early or late), a student must be approved for an Excused Absence. A student who does not take an examination at the scheduled time and is appropriately excused will be allowed to take a make-up examination, if eligible. A student who does not take a quiz at the scheduled time and is appropriately excused will generally receive a 0/0. However, under certain circumstances, a make-up quiz may be administered. A student who is excused from attending a required lab will not miss any required points for the lab. However, that student should not expect faculty to recreate the lab experience. Hence, it is critical for students to attend all labs, whenever reasonably possible. If the student misses a scheduled make-up examination, the student will receive a zero for that examination.
For pre-clinical students, the Excused Absence form is located on the RVU iNet webserver.