Accommodations

Auditing

Faculty and staff who wish to audit a course (attend at no cost) in the autumn, winter or spring quarters should submit the auditor application form, which requires signatures from the instructor and the department administrator and final approval from the Registrar's Office. Auditing status is not available in the summer term. Postdoctoral scholars and currently matriculated Stanford students who wish to audit may do so at the discretion of the instructor. Auditors are expected to be observers rather than active participants in the courses they attend. They are not awarded credit and there is no official record of attendance.

Although some departments at Stanford University allow non-Stanford affiliates to audit courses by submitting the application form and requesting Permit to Attend status — which if granted, will incur Permit to Attend fees — the Department of Statistics does not.

Please note that if you will have several non-enrolled attendees in your course, you must inform the Student Services Manager to ensure your assigned classroom can accommodate them.

Accommodating Student Disabilities

Academic accommodation should be provided only upon receipt of a letter from the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Note that academic accommodations should be consistent with those detailed in the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) letter provided by the student. If a student requests additional accommodations beyond those detailed in the letter, you should refer the student back to OAE. Should the student offer to provide medical documentation to you, please decline and refer the student to OAE. It may be helpful to know that OAE welcomes calls from faculty who have questions about academic accommodation. Refer to their Faculty & Teaching Staff page for more details, and contact your SSM if you need further clarification.

Accommodating Student Course Conflicts

Stanford's enrollment software does not prevent students from enrolling in courses with conflicting schedules. Some professors, who post all course materials on Canvas and do not assess the students by means of any in-class tests, are not concerned if students regularly miss classes, providing homework is completed and the students are available for the midterm/final exam. For others, missing classes or arriving late/leaving early is considered disruptive and disrespectful to those who attend full-time. If you expect students to attend all classes it is important that you make this clear during the first week of the quarter and include it on the syllabus. If you make any verbal or written accommodations for students, for example allowing them to miss one of the weekly sessions, then this is a binding agreement and cannot be revoked. Course conflicts with extracurricular activities such as athletic commitments should generally be accommodated.

Requests for Incompletes

The grade of I (Incomplete) is reserved for students who have satisfactorily completed a substantial part of the coursework. Additionally, the onus is on the student to request an Incomplete prior to the last class. Instructors are under no obligation to grant the request for an Incomplete and, should they wish to do so, they may set specific time and other conditions under which the work must be submitted. A helpful rule of thumb is that “substantially” means that the student would pass the course if an Incomplete were not approved and no further work were submitted.

In cases where a student fails to complete a significant part of the coursework, the instructor should issue the grade earned. In some cases, it may be appropriate to issue a failing grade of NC (no credit) or NP (no pass).