Attendance, Meeting Times, and Exams

Attendance

Students are expected to be present throughout each semester at all meetings of classes for which they are enrolled. The right to excuse a student from class rests at all times with the instructor of that class.

In accordance with Section 224-a of the New York State Education Law, any student who is absent from school because of his or her religious beliefs must be given an equivalent opportunity to enroll in classes or make up any examinations, study, or work requirements that he or she may have missed because of such absence on any particular day or days. No fees of any kind shall be charged by the university for making available such equivalent opportunities.  In order to facilitate preparation of makeup exams, students intending to be absent in order to observe religious holidays are requested to notify the instructor by the end of the first full week of classes.

Class Meeting Times

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the hours of 4:25 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., on Fridays the hours after 4:25 p.m., on Saturday the hours after 12:05 p.m., and all day Sunday shall be free from all formal undergraduate classes or laboratory exercises.  Tuesday and Thursday evenings are reserved for evening examinations and therefore shall remain free from classes and laboratory exercises. On Monday and Wednesday evenings only regularly scheduled courses, and prelims previously approved by the Office of the University Faculty are permitted. Other evening academic activities commencing at or after 7:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays are not allowed.

Faculty must work with their department chairperson to make every effort within the academic unit to comply with the above standard class meeting times.  Only when local resolution proves impossible may the faculty member request, in writing, an exception.  The exception request must first be approved by the unit associate dean, or an equivalent individual designated by the unit dean, who must then seek final approval from the vice provost for undergraduate education.

Evening Preliminary Examinations

The most convenient times and places for “prelims” are the normal class time and classrooms.  In cases where the only alternative is to hold evening preliminary examinations, they may be scheduled only on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and only after 7:30 p.m. 

Instructors holding evening examinations are strongly urged to indicate this in the course descriptions and must notify students of the dates of such examinations as early as possible in the semester, preferably when the course outline is distributed.  If an evening prelim is scheduled, an alternative time to take the examination must be provided for those students who have academic, religious, athletic, or employment conflicts at the time scheduled.

Exceptions to the regulations on evening preliminary examinations require approval of the dean of the university faculty. For more information on the policy governing evening examinations, contact the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, 315 Day Hall, deanoffaculty@cornell.edu.

The prelim schedule is available at registrar.cornell.edu/exams.

Final Examinations

The academic calendar sets aside, after the last week of classes, a study period followed by a period for final examinations.  Advances in pedagogy and variations in practice across fields have broadened the range of commonly used end-of-semester evaluative exercises beyond traditional sit-down final examinations.  The Office of the University Registrar assigns a specific day and time for a course’s final exam, or final project due date. 

The rules and guidelines governing exams aim to protect students from unreasonable demands on their time while simultaneously providing instructors the flexibility to design evaluative exercises appropriate to their courses. The designated final exam days and times are scheduled to minimize conflicts and spread students’ workloads as evenly as possible over the exam period.

Faculty members are urged to accommodate students’ requests for alternative exam times or make-up examinations when students’ exam schedules are sufficiently congested to warrant such accommodation. For example, a student facing a direct conflict or three or more examinations during one twenty-four hour time period merits such accommodation.

Schedules for final examinations, and due dates for end of semester projects, papers and take home exams are made available online at registrar.cornell.edu/exams. No traditional final examination may be administered at a time other than the time assigned by the OUR without prior written permission of the dean of the university faculty.

The rules and policies governing exams are available at registrar.cornell.edu/exams/final-exam-policies.