Academic Policies

The Academic Progress Report is an online form you can use to identify students in academic difficulty, including any of the following reasons:

• No or poor attendance 

• Poor performance on early course assessments 

• Late or missing assignments

• Any sudden change in performance

• Any academic or non-academic concerns

• To provide extra encouragement

The basics

• Progress reports can be submitted at any time during the term. We recommend you submit one as soon as you have a concern about a student. 

• Midway through the term, you may receive an email to submit Progress Reports for a set of “requested” students who are affiliated with a student academic success unit on campus (e.g., the Comprehensive Studies Program and Athletic Department’s Academic Success Program). 

• When you submit a progress report,  a copy is sent to the student and all the student's assigned advisors. Another copy is placed in the student's Online Advising File. [If a student does not have an assigned advisor, the progress report will be sent to the advising center of the student’s academic units.]

• An advisor will contact the student to discuss the academic concerns. 

• Academic advisors can only help students with academic issues. If you have a non-academic concern, please submit a CARE Report to the Dean of Students Office. 

Best practices

• • Because the goal of progress reports is to support student success in your course, they are sent to the students and their advisors. Any notes you include should help the student understand your concerns and suggest ways to address them. The student will see your entire submission.

  • Include an honest assessment of the student's performance. Provide enough information to make a decision regarding the course. If you believe withdrawing from the course is in the student’s best interest (i.e., they are unlikely to pass the course), please let the student know prior to the late drop deadline. If you think they can succeed, please include concrete ideas.

  • If you remain concerned about a student’s academic performance even after submitting an Academic Progress Report, we encourage you to submit a follow-up progress report, noting your concerns in the course.

While there is no college-wide attendance policy, departments or individual instructors may have such policies and should describe them in their syllabi. Please check with your department to see if there is a departmental policy on class attendance. 

• Students may be dropped from a course by the department for non-attendance. 

• Students who register for a course after it has begun may not be held responsible for attendance prior to registration, but will be held responsible for completing any assessments or assignments that occurred prior to registration. 

What should I do if one of my students hasn’t attended class or their attendance pattern changed?

• • Email the student to make sure everything is okay. 

  • Submit a Progress Report for the student. The Progress Report will go to both the student and the student’s academic advisor and will allow the advisor to do additional outreach. 

What should I do if I’m concerned about a student’s well-being?

If you have a non-academic concern about a student please fill out a CARE Report with the Dean of Students Office. They will connect with the student and try to provide support.

Absences Due to Illness

LSA offers an Illness or Absence Reporting Form for students to self-report an illness. Students receive an auto-generated response that lets them know:

• This self-reporting does not constitute an excused absence and instructors may request documentation to substantiate the absence.

• The student should contact their instructors directly about work missed during their absence.

What do I do if I receive an Illness or Absence Report from a student?

If you receive an illness report from a student, proceed according to your attendance policy. The student is still responsible for any work missed during the absence. 

What if I have received several Illness or Absence Reports from the same student? 

• • This could indicate an issue with which the student needs support. You may submit a CARE Report to alert the Dean of Students Office that the student may be facing challenges. 

  • If you are concerned about the student's ability to succeed in the course due to so many absences please submit a Progress Report so the student and their academic advisor can have a better understanding of the student’s academic standing in the course. 

Absences Due to Religious Holidays

The University of Michigan makes every reasonable effort to allow members of the University community to observe religious holidays without academic penalty.  

• Students need to provide notice of the dates they will be absent for religious observance by the end of the term's drop/add deadline. 

• Students are expected to make up the work they missed during their absence.

• Instructors are expected to offer an opportunity to make up the work without penalty, unless a make-up opportunity would unreasonably interfere with the delivery of the course. 

If there is a disagreement over this policy, contact the department chair, the dean of the school, or the student ombudsperson. Final appeals will be resolved by the provost. Please see the policy as stated on the Office of the Provost website.

Absences Due to Official University Commitments

Students sometimes miss class due to their commitment to officially represent the university, such as involvement in performing arts, scientific or artistic endeavors, or intercollegiate athletics. 

• Absence from class in these instances are excused.

• Students are still responsible for any part of the course missed during their absence. Within reason, make arrangements for missed work and options to make up missed assignments.

For further information, consult with your department's chair.

Canceling a Class Session

If you need to cancel a class session, notify your department. You and your department can discuss whether identifying an alternative instructor is possible, and whether any other steps should be taken to ensure your course continues to progress as planned.

Your official class roster is available on Wolverine Access under Faculty Business > Faculty Center.

What if a student's name does not appear on the roster? 

The student will need to correct the issue by the add/drop deadline. You may request that the student not participate in your class until officially registered, or you may allow participation on the assumption that the problem will be resolved.

All classes have 10 minutes passing time between them, and neither the incoming or outgoing class should expect to have exclusive use of a classroom during the ten-minute passing period. 

• Students and instructors enter and exit the classroom. 

• The outgoing instructor may answer short questions from students.

• The incoming instructor may also need to set up for the next class. 

As of Fall 2026, course schedules will more accurately reflect the official end times of classes. 

One hour classes: 

• • begin on the hour 

  • end ten minutes before the next hour

Ninety-minute classes:

• begin on the hour or half-hour

• end one hour and twenty minutes later

Exams During the Term

All exams except finals should be scheduled during class sessions. 

• If scheduling outside of class time is unavoidable, you will need to make mutually satisfactory make-up exam arrangements for the students who cannot attend your time. 

• Work with your department to ensure that your exam dates and times are published in the University Schedule of Classes. This helps prevent students from scheduling courses that have time conflicts.

• Exams cannot be scheduled on Study Days, university holidays, or weekends.

Final Exams

The final exam schedule is published by the Office of the Registrar each term. Instructors may not depart from the official schedule. 

• Final exams may not be scheduled by instructors during regular instructional class time (including the last day of class), regardless of whether they are called “final exams.”

• Final exams cannot be scheduled on Study Days, university holidays, or weekends.

• Final exams scheduled may not be moved to a new date without prior approval of the Office of the Registrar.

• If you get permission to change your final exam time, any student who wishes to take the exam at the originally assigned time must be allowed to do so. 

• Students who need an alternative final exam time may be accommodated on an individual basis. 

• You do not need to accommodate time conflicts between final exams as a result of a student enrolling for two courses that meet at the same time. 

• If any student is assigned four final examinations on the same day, the student may request to reschedule one of the exams through the Office of the Registrar.

Alternate Exam Times

If a student needs to take the final earlier or later than the designated time:

• • Students must notify you of the conflict at least two weeks before the final exam period. 

  • You should make every reasonable effort to accommodate them.

  • Exams cannot be scheduled on Study Days, university holidays, or weekends.

  • Departments are encouraged to provide an alternate exam date/time (in addition to the scheduled exam time), especially for extra-large classes. When scheduling alternate finals, it is best to use established exam times of 8-10 a.m., 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., 1:30-3:30 p.m., 4-6 p.m., or 7-9 p.m.

If a student has four finals on the same day, the student may request to reschedule one of the exams through the Office of the Registrar.

If you see an error or conflict in the final exam schedule, contact the Office of the Registrar (finalexams@umich.edu) at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the Final Examination Period. The university does change final exams to observe religious holidays. Please see the policy as stated on the Office of the Provost website.

Returning Exams and Papers

• • Privacy: Please avoid leaving papers in the hallway or outside your office for pick-up. This would violate students' privacy and run the risk that papers may be stolen. Instead, return papers in class, during your office hours, or from your department’s main office during regular hours when a trusted staff member may hand papers to students.

  • Deadlines: If you retain papers or exams, you should keep them for one year after the end of the course so that students will still have the opportunity to examine them and learn from them. Having the papers also will protect you in a case where a student files a grade grievance.

Posting Exam Grades

• Privacy: If you post exam or course grades, ensure that you protect each student’s right to privacy. 

  • Do not list students by name or student ID numbers. Please refer to the Office of the Registrar website for more information on student privacy rights.

  • Official Course grades are submitted via Wolverine Access by course instructors or department staff. Detailed instructions are in the Registrar's Job Aid.

• Deadlines: Grades are due 72 hours after the final exam is given or 72 hours from the due date of the work submitted by students if there is no final exam. Please see the Provost's Faculty Handbook for additional information on grading and deadlines.

According to the Family Educational and Rights Privacy Act (FERPA), access to individual student information is restricted to university academic advisors, student-facing staff, instructors, and others with a legitimate educational interest to review the specific record. 

FERPA grants students the right to:

• inspect and review their education records;

• request amendments to records they believe are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of their privacy rights under FERPA;

• consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in their education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

What do I do if I'm contacted by parents?

Releasing student information to a third party, including parents, requires the student's permission. LSA students can use the online Student Release of Information form to authorize their parents to receive certain information. 

What training do I need to do?

All faculty and staff should complete FERPA training to ensure baseline knowledge of how to protect student privacy and records. The training is done online every year on MyLinc and takes about 30 minutes.

Read more: Registrar’s Office Website. 

Questions: Contact Student Academic Affairs (lsa.saa.office@umich.edu)

Many students may choose to use a name other than their legal name. Preferred names may not appear on your class roster for a variety of reasons. 

Resources to help you:

• From the Spectrum Center: Creating gender affirming learning spaces

• UM’s preferred name policy 

You can make special room requests from the UM Registrar’s Curriculum Office (RO Curriculum)

Requests for special equipment

• • Requests for special equipment (data or video projection, specific seating types, etc.) should be entered by your department curriculum representative in Wolverine Access under Curriculum Management > Schedule of Classes > Maintain Schedule of Classes > Meetings > Room Characteristics. 

  • Please request only those characteristics that are essential. It is possible to request too many characteristics and make it impossible to schedule a class.

Requests for a specific location

RO Curriculum tries to schedule classes as geographically close to the Department or Program office as possible. Requests that are considered “must-haves” are: 

• An instructor has a disability that requires the class to be scheduled in the same building as their office. In this case, instructors can work with the Disability Navigators to determine the best location to accommodate the instructor and course needs.

• An instructor has back-to-back sections, and there is insufficient time to travel to another building. RO Curriculum tries to schedule these in the same room if possible or at least in the same building. To request a different location for class meetings, contact your department's room scheduling representative, who will send an email to ro.curriculum@umich.edu on your behalf. They should include your subject, course, section, days, times, requested room size, and your name.

LSA offers template syllabus statements you can use or modify as appropriate in your syllabi. 

You can find template statements on:

• Academic Misconduct

• Use of ChatGPT and Other AI Tools

• Course Recordings

• Disability Statement

• Mental Health and Well-Being

• Sexual Misconduct Policy

• Student Parents and Caregivers

LSA Equitable Teaching has Inclusive Syllabus Language you can adapt. And the Michigan Caregivers and Student Parents group has a syllabus statement on their Advocacy page.