Student Attendance Policy for all Chemistry Classes.

The Department of Chemistry has agreed on a common attendance and absence policy for all of our courses. Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes and labs and are responsible for any work missed. Failure to attend will lead to a warning, grading penalties, and/or dismissal from the course with a failing grade.

The Department of Chemistry supports college-sponsored activities or events (e.g., musical performances or athletic competitions) and recognizes that they may infrequently conflict with a class or lab. Students should never miss class or lab for an athletic practice. It is the responsibility of students to communicate directly with their instructors during the first week of class to resolve scheduling conflicts. Athletic schedules are available on the web (http://www.colby.edu/athletics). Students on academic probation may not be excused from any class because of extracurricular or athletic activities.

Students that have a critical emergency or illness are not expected to attend class or lab. We do request that, after the fact, the College Health Center or Dean of Students Office verify the emergency or illness.

Instructors will notify students in writing of attendance policy violations. The notification will detail the nature of the violation and the consequences of a repeat violation.

Students who are dismissed from a course due to unsatisfactory attendance through the mid-semester deadline (with the exception of first-year students) will receive a grade of WF. Students dismissed after mid-semester day will receive a grade of F in the course, with the exception of first-year students who will be dismissed with a mark of WF.

Policy on Missed Exams.

Make up exams are not given. If you will miss an exam for a medical or psychological reason, you must request communication from your medical/psychological professional or from the Dean of Students Office directly to the course instructor. If you miss an exam for a family emergency, you must request communication from the Dean of Students Office directly to the course instructor.

Policy on Time Extensions for Exams.

Exams are designed to be completed during the class time allotted. Some students may have approval from the Dean of Students Office for time extensions on exams. These students must bring a letter from the Dean of Students Office that gives the appropriate time extension directly to the course instructor each term.

Policy on Academic Honesty

The Department of Chemistry does not tolerate academic dishonesty in lecture or laboratory courses. Cheating, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or deception in any written, oral, or other form of graded material, including laboratory notebooks, constitutes academic dishonesty. Working together in small groups to study course materials is encouraged as such discussions are useful to generate ideas to solve problems and make learning more interesting. In instances where students work as partners in a laboratory setting, each student may exchange experimental details and data with her/his lab partner and other classmates if expressly permitted by the instructor. However: ALL materials that YOU submit for a grade must be uniquely the results of YOUR work ONLY.

This policy includes exams, pre-lab assignments, lab notebooks, laboratory reports, and homework assignments. All answers to questions must be in your own words, and you must perform all calculations yourself, even when working with a partner. Acts such as copying homework problems, using data from another student or external source, and photocopying material from anyone else’s laboratory notebook to include it in your notebook are serious offenses. In addition, allowing your own work or data to be copied by another student is considered academic dishonesty as well.

Exams, Tests, and Quizzes

On exams (and quizzes), academic dishonesty can take many forms including but not necessarily limited to:

• Looking at and/or copying material from another student’s exam, or allowing any other student to copy any of your work.
• Using any sources or materials during an exam that are not expressly allowed by the instructor, creating such materials and leaving them in a location where they might be used by you or another student (i.e., all such materials should be secured in a bag or not brought to the exam, they may not be: on the floor, hidden in your exam, written on your hand, programmed into an electronic device, left in the bathroom, halls, or surrounding area, etc.).
• Altering your exam in any way after it is handed back to you when asking for regrading of a portion of or all of an exam.

The sanction for a student who is found responsible for academic dishonesty on an examination or quiz in any Chemistry Department course, including examinations and quizzes given as part of a course laboratory, shall be a minimum of failure on the assignment, and in most cases the infraction will result in failure in the course. Suspension or expulsion from the College is also possible. All academic dishonesty violations will be reported to the department Chair and the Dean of Students Office.

Labs, Homework, and other Graded Assignments

Academic dishonesty is no less serious on laboratory reports and other graded laboratory work, or homework and other graded assignments. As with exams and quizzes, sanctions for any offense range from a minimum of a grade of zero for the entire assignment, to failure in the course, suspension and/or expulsion. Notification of all infractions will be reported to the Department Chair and Dean of Students Office.

This policy is consistent with that of the College outlined in the Academic Procedures section of the Colby catalogue.