By: Tam Nguyen, Staff Writer
Life is unpredictable and often beyond our control. As students, health conditions or personal emergencies can impact our ability to stay on top of courses. Things like contagious illnesses, mental health issues, or loved ones passing away can take a heavy toll on someone’s day-to-day functioning. There are all kinds of emergencies that can happen to anyone. It’s hard enough to go through these events, but it’s even worse that SFU students must rely on professors’ discretion if academic concessions are needed.
Academic concessions can include things like being excused for missing classes, or not completing exams and coursework. At SFU, they’re granted when “unexpected situations or circumstances prevent students from participating in course-related activities.” While this sounds like a good option, the system in place is not standardized. SFU states that “concessions are normally granted at the discretion of individual instructors” and “students should always speak to their instructor as a first step.” Some professors may be empathetic and grant academic concessions after you send them an email, but others will require you to go through bureaucratic hoops and get extensive documentation — which takes additional time and sometimes money — just to prove you’re incapable of keeping up with the course.
Some might suggest going through SFU’s Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL). After you register with them, SFU has a legal obligation to provide required accommodations. However, CAL doesn’t accommodate non-disability related matters such as personal or family emergencies. They also require extensive documentation and appointments to set up accommodations, which are still ultimately at the discretion of your disability advisor. Unlike accommodations, academic concessions are not bound by any laws or standardized process — and it’s often up to your professor to accept or deny your request.
This leads to different outcomes for students depending on the professor, which is unfair. It’s also absurd that a student struggling with their physical or mental health may be asked to book an appointment with their physician and pay for a doctor’s note — something that isn’t covered by most insurance plans, and can cost up to $100. That is to assume students are even able to get in to see a doctor in a timely manner, and can afford a doctor’s note. It’s inhumane and no one deserves to go through this when they’re already in a bad place.
SFU needs to have a more standardized system for navigating unexpected health conditions and personal emergencies. Hiring additional trained staff to grant academic concessions in accordance with standardized guidelines would make more sense than expecting professors to make unqualified decisions. This would ensure fairer, more consistent outcomes for students, and also reduce the amount of work for professors. This solution is not new. For example, UofT has their ACORN Absence Declaration system to help students self-declare their academic consideration requests. UBC also has their self-declaration form to support academic concessions without documentation from doctors. Putting academic concessions at the discretion of individual professors does nothing but make matters worse for students who need support.
