Bereavement Policy

Policy

• Students will be excused from class for funeral leave in the event of the death of a member of the student’s immediate family or household for up to three work days for an in-state funeral and five work days for out-of-state.

Statement of support

In the unfortunate event that a student experiences a personal tragedy or trauma such as, for example, a death in the family or personal injury or harm, the University stands ready to assist and accommodate him or her in the aftermath. If a student should suffer the loss of a parent, guardian, sibling, spouse, roommate, or other person close to them, their associate provost has the authority to provide a number of special accommodations, and will be happy to review them with the affected student.

How to report

• If a student experiences a personal tragedy or trauma, he or she should notify (or have a roommate, friend, or family member notify) their associate provost’s office i.e., undergraduate students contact the associate provost for student life, and graduate/professional students contact the associate provost for graduate studies). The associate provost will see that instructors are contacted, and ask them to assist the student when ready and able to resume their studies. Their office will also gladly help access support resources in the local community, such as Counseling Services and the Religious Life staff, if that would be useful. Upon return to campus, the student should arrange to meet with the associate provost to discuss options and strategies for catching up with missed academic work and for completing the quarter/semester successfully.
• Faculty will be notified by: undergraduates: the executive director of academic advising; graduate/professional students: director of graduate student services.

Available options

Among the options available to assist students in tragic situations are the following (subject to current applicable policies):
• Withdrawal
• Load reductions
• Additional time to complete work (NB: excuse from class attendance is not an excuse from fulfilling course requirements, which must be fulfilled in a timely manner)
• Incompletes
• Official academic accommodations through the Disability Service Program (Accommodations may include extended time on tests, assistive technologies, note-taking, extensions on assignments, extra absences, etc.). The accommodations policy can be accessed at this website: http://www.du.edu/studentlife/disability/dsp/AcademicAccommodationsPolicy.pdf

Grievance/appeal process

If a student and course instructor cannot agree on an appropriate resolution to the absence, the student may bring the matter to the Department Chair for a decision. If there is still no agreement, the student may bring the matter to the appropriate Associate Provost, where a final decision will be made. Students who believe they have been discriminated against on the basis of religion by the denial of a requested bereavement accommodation may contact the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity to learn about filing a discrimination complaint.