Stephen F. Austin State University

Lumberjacks,

Welcome to campus! We made changes to faculty notification requests, formerly known as "Absence Notifications" for students, that became effective Aug. 1. Below, you will find the process in which students can submit absences and how the Dean of Students Office will handle these requests moving forward.

Purpose: This serves to formalize a process for student absences that meets requirements set forth by the institution and supports students who may have missed classes for specified reasons.

Qualifying reasons are unplanned absences that have impacted a student's ability to attend class. This must be submitted no later than 10 business days after the incident. Qualifying reasons will fall into the following four categories:

• Death of family member*
• Hospitalization — admitted into the hospital for health purposes (medical or mental)
• Personal emergency — this can include car accidents or drastic life events, such as a fire*
• Administrative and other — this can include jury duty, court subpoena, etc.

*Other situations may be considered at the discretion of the Dean of Students Office.

Additionally, requests must be accompanied with appropriate documentation, which includes, but is not limited to death certificates, obituaries/programs (with listed name), medical discharge documents, a subpoena, a jury summons, or a police report from an accident.

Some reasons for being denied a faculty notification request may include, but are not limited to illness, traffic court, oversleeping, physician’s appointment, car trouble, or an emergency room visit (non-admittance).

Process:

1. Students are responsible for submitting faculty notification requests and providing supporting documentation substantiating the reason for requests. Requests with no supporting documentation will automatically be denied.

2. SFA's Student Outreach and Support will review documentation and assess validity. Upon review, SOS will determine the approval or denial of the faculty notification request.

3. SOS will notify students of the faculty notification request determination and will notify faculty members only of approved faculty notification requests.

4. It is the student’s responsibility to provide approved faculty notification requests to faculty members. Additionally, it is at the faculty member's discretion to honor approved circumstantial requests.

Andrew J. Dies, EdD
Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Stephen F. Austin State University | Dean of Students Office
T 936.468.7249 | F 936.468.7111
andrew.dies@sfasu.edu