Writing Program Policies on Teachers and Students

Attendance and Class Cancellations

Teacher Absences

In general, faculty should not cancel classes for conferences, or for the sake of convenience or anticipated low attendance before holiday weekends, near the official end of the semester, etc. However, sometimes faculty absences are unavoidable.

  • If you are sick or unable to teach a class, you may request a substitute for the day from the Writing Program Sub Alliance. Alternatively, you may schedule a workshop with the Educational Resource Center, who offer a variety of academic skills workshops, each usually about an hour long, that can be offered to your students by ERC staff.
  • If you will need to miss more than one class, please notify the Writing Program admin team immediately so that we can help you make appropriate arrangements.

Student Attendance

We all know that it is in everyone’s best interests for students to have consistent, regular attendance. Faculty have different preferences for recording attendance, passing around sign-in sheets, etc., but despite our best efforts, some students will be ill during the semester and some will miss class. PLEASE BE SURE YOU ARE USING THE CURRENT WP ATTENDANCE POLICY on your syllabi, for the sake of consistency across sections.

  • Students who are habitually absent may have more serious issues; follow up with the student, but also consider alerting CAS Advising in these cases, as they may be able to check in with a student’s other professors. If you have concerns about a student, please let the Writing Program know of any students who have significant attendance problems, sooner rather than later. You may fill out the CAS Advising form for reporting a concern about a student–if a student is not in CAS, the second page of this form gives you the email addresses for different college and advising offices.
  • Encourage students who are ill to stay home. Please do not ask your students to provide an excuse letter if they are sick. Clinicians at Student Health Services generally do not write excuse letters or emails advocating for a student who is requesting release from an academic requirement.
  • We do not offer absent students the option of remotely attending class while they are ill.
  • Please refer to the program-wide attendance policy in Section 2 of our current syllabi templates, and feel free to consult with a member of the director team about individual cases.

Cancelation of Classes by the University

  • During any emergency, please ascertain whether classes at the University are being suspended. BU closing information is available at (617) 353-SNOW. We will also email information to all instructors as it becomes available.

Concerns About Students

Emergencies

  • The vast majority of Boston University first-year students satisfy their one- or two-semester writing requirement by attending courses offered by the Writing Program. What this means (among other things) is that we are on the front lines in addressing any problems or emergencies that may arise among first-year students.
  • Boston University asks that you report any criminal incident, suspicious circumstance, or safety-related emergency occurring on University grounds to the Boston University Police Department. For all emergencies—police, fire, medical—contact the Boston University Police: (617) 353-2121.
  • The directors are always available via cell or email in case of emergency.

Resources for Helping Students

Reporting Missing and Troubled Students

  • We ask for your assistance in keeping track of students who may be experiencing personal and academic difficulties in your class and in others. This guide to identifying and helping students in distress may help, and the program directors are always available to discuss such matters. Please also consider contacting, where appropriate, Student Health Services, 617-353-3575; Campus Police, 617-353-2121; or Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center (SARP), 617-353-SARP (7277).
  • In most cases, your first point of contact should be with a student’s academic advisor and/or college’s advising office. We encourage you to let advisors know about students who are experiencing difficulties. They welcome this information because it gives them more information about the student’s situation that they can use to investigate and help the student better. Ideally, you should contact the advising office of the student’s BU college. If you are unable to identify the student’s college, you are welcome to contact or visit CAS Advising (4th floor, 100 Bay State Road). They can help put you in touch with the appropriate person.
  • If you have a first-year student, a relatively new additional resource is the student’s particular Assistant Director of First-Year Success. These folks handle advising but also, more generally, concerns about students’ wellbeing, and they have been very responsive. To find out which member of their team is working with any individual student, go to the “Academic Summary” tab in the FacultyLink. The lowest name listed under “Advisor” is the First-Year Success person for that student; feel free to email them a quick summary of the situation, so that they can then oversee getting help for the student. Image of the Academic Summary tab in the FacultyLink showing that the bottom name on the list is the student's Assistant Director of First Year Success

Sexual Harassment and Assault (Title IX) Cases

  • The university has very strict procedural guidelines for following Title IX regulations about sexual harassment and assault that you are required to follow as an instructor. Please visit the BU Safety website for the most current policies and procedures for reporting. If you have any questions or would like assistance with the process, please contact the appropriate CAS Deputy Title IX Coordinator listed on the Safety website linked above.
  • If a student or staff or faculty member asks to talk to you about something confidential, immediately inform him or her before the person begins the discussion that you cannot promise confidentiality (see below). If a student wants to discuss a sexual assault confidentially, he or she should contact the University’s Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center or a member of the clergy. The student can find University chaplains from a variety of religious traditions through Marsh Chapel. If a staff or faculty member wants to speak to someone confidentially, he or she should contact the Faculty Assistance Office.
  • If you become aware of an allegation of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, stalking, domestic or dating violence or sexual harassment (no matter how small an issue you think it may be), you are required to report the incident promptly to the appropriate Title IX Coordinator by following the guidelines on the Safety website. Some common examples of sexual harassment and assault are listed on that website. If you are unsure if you should report something, always contact a Title IX Coordinator for advice.

Student Illness

  • Encourage students who are ill to stay home. BU does not want students to put others at risk of infection by attending class sick.
  • If you have questions about how to help students dealing with a serious illness (or with family situations)—not in terms of grading but in terms of assessing the student’s wellbeing—please contact the University Service Center (617-358-1818) and/or Steve Jarvi in the CAS Dean’s office for assistance.

Students with Documented and Possible Disabilities

  • You should make reasonable accommodations for students in your class who have disabilities. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) students who have registered with the Office of Disability and Access Services may ask for reasonable accommodations in your class. Students who have registered will receive letters outlining the accommodations to which they are entitled. These letters will not identify their disabilities, and you should not request that information from your students. Such requests violate students’ privacy rights. Students sometimes voluntarily disclose their disabilities. We trust that you will treat this information with sensitivity and professionalism. Students who have not registered may also approach you about accommodations. Feel free to consult with any of the Writing Program directors in these cases.

Contact with Parents

  • Writing Program policy is that faculty should minimize contact with students’ parents. Please refer parents to the director. This policy protects you as an individual; it protects the university; and, in fact, it protects students. FERPA prohibits faculty from discussing a student’s performance with any third party not involved in that student’s education—even parents.

Feedback

Office Hours, Appointments, and Conferences

  • Please schedule one hour of availability for each course you are teaching, taking care to maximize your students’ opportunities to attend (e.g., do not schedule all three hours as MWF 1-2, since a great many students have classes during this block, or all your hours at 7 am when students may have difficulty getting to campus that early). Also, indicate your willingness to accommodate students whose schedules conflict with your office hours.
  • In addition to informal office appointments, you should hold formal conferences with each of your students at least twice during the semester. You are welcome to schedule student appointments during your regular office hours; however, students who wish to see you on a drop-in basis should be accommodated. Please do not suspend classes to hold office conferences.

Collecting and Returning Papers

  • You are expected to provide timely and substantive feedback on drafts and final versions of your students’ major papers. We recommend that you collect and return papers electronically (e.g., through email, through Blackboard, through Digication, or through BU’s Google Drive). See the Technology section for more information. In general, while feedback can be provided in many modes, written comments on papers (drafts and revisions) should include more than a simple 2-3 sentence end comment. If you are not providing written comments on drafts, draft conferences should be mandatory as opposed to optional.
  • You may, if you choose, have students submit their work to you on paper. However, you may not leave a student’s paper with your comments or grades where other students may have access to it. The practice of returning papers by leaving them in your mailbox or in a box outside your office door is illegal (FERPA violation).