At Morris, verification of participation in official university activities is provided by the Office of the Chancellor.
Contact:
Office of the Chancellor
ummchan@morris.umn.edu
Verification of legitimate absences for participation in a regularly scheduled intercollegiate athletic events, music tours, and other official university activities identified by the university (approved by the senior academic officer) originate from the Office of the Chancellor. Instructors may not penalize students for absence during the academic term due to these unavoidable, legitimate circumstances.
To obtain an verification of a legitimate absence for students participating in a University trip or activity, a faculty/academic staff member or staff adviser will send an alphabetical listing of the students to be excused, reasons for the absence, and dates/times to the chancellor’s office for review and approval at least three days prior to the trip. Notices are sent to Division Offices where they are posted and maintained for instructor review.
Request Documentation for Student Life Absence
Student engagement in co-curricular learning activities is a valued part of the Morris learning environment. As such, students and registered student organizations may request documentation of an absence to participate in co-curricular activities that would necessitate absence from classes. As class attendance is essential to academic success and fulfilling the primary mission of UMM, documentation of absences for co-curricular involvement are reviewed carefully and granted judiciously for significant learning opportunities. These requests are initiated through Student Engagement & Events for first review:
https://sites.google.com/a/morris.umn.edu/claseexcuserequest/
When students are participating in these types of educational experiences, such as a student government conference, where the student is representing the University of Minnesota, the instructor has the discretion about whether to allow a student to miss a class session and to make arrangements for any makeup work. The instructor is permitted to do so, but is not obligated to do so.
Faculty members retain the prerogative to excuse individual students from their class without official verification.
Note: Instructors are not obligated to accommodate students missing so much of the critical components of a course, even for legitimate reasons, that arrangements for makeup work would not be reasonable.
See Makeup Work for Legitimate Absences for notification/verification, make-up work, appeals, and FAQs.