Purpose
These guidelines provide the procedures to be followed if a student-athlete will miss an exam due to illness, team travel, or other sports-related events, such as outside competitions.
Terminology
Faculty: For the purpose of these guidelines, a faculty member is an individual who holds a fulltime appointment within the University whose primary responsibility is teaching.
Instructor: For the purpose of these guidelines, the term course instructor (instructor) refers to the individual who is the instructor of record for the course.
Proctor: For the purpose of these guidelines, the proctor for an exam will be a faculty member as defined above. In a situation where it is not possible for a faculty member to serve as proctor, the Director of Academics will have the authority to approve as proctor a non-faculty member.
Testing Center: For the purpose of these guidelines, an approved testing center may include an on-campus testing center, an off-campus entity whose primary business purpose is to serve as a testing center, or a library.
Option One: On-Campus Alternate Testing Time
- The student-athlete, with possible assistance from an Academic Counselor, will contact the course instructor to discuss the possibility of scheduling an alternative time to take the exam either before or after the regularly scheduled exam time.
- If the instructor agrees to arrange an alternative testing time but does not want to proctor it personally, the Academic Counselor, in consultation with the Director of Academics, will arrange for a member of the faculty to proctor the exam.
- The instructor will email the exam directly to the proctor with directions for administering the exam. Once the student-athlete has completed the exam, the proctor will scan the exam and email it directly to the instructor.
- In the alternative, the instructor may elect to have the Academic Counselor pick up the exam, which will be in a sealed envelope with the instructor’s signature over the seal, the Academic Counselor will then deliver the exam to the proctor. Directions from the instructor will be included on the outside of the envelope for the proctor.
- Once the student-athlete has completed the exam, the proctor will place the exam into a newly sealed envelope applying a signature over the seal. The proctor will then return the envelope to the Academic Counselor who will deliver it directly to the instructor.
Option Two: Alternate Site Testing with a non-UNL proctor
- In some cases the instructor prefers that the student-athlete take the exam on the same day, perhaps even at the same time, as every other student in the course. In this instance, arrangements must be made to have the exam proctored at an alternate site. Guidelines established April 2013 2 Guidelines revised January 2018
- The student-athlete’s Academic Counselor will locate a proctor at the visiting institution or one that is nearby. In most cases, the proctor at the visiting institution will be a faculty member; however, in some instances the exam may be proctored at an approved testing center.
- Once a proctor has been arranged, the academic counselor, instructor, and proctor will determine how the exam will be sent to the proctor. The first preference is for the course instructor to email the test directly to the proctor at the visiting institution, including directions that explain how the exam is to be administered. Occasionally, the instructor may prefer to have the exam handdelivered to the proctor in a sealed envelope with the instructor’s signature over the seal. The exam is hand-delivered to the proctor by a member of the travel party, typically the Director of Operations or a member of the coaching staff.
- In most cases, once the student-athlete has completed the exam, the proctor at the visiting institution will scan the exam and email it directly back to the instructor. Additionally, the proctor will return the original exam in a newly sealed envelope with signature over the seal. This envelope may be returned to the Academic Counselor via U.S. mail, FedEx or by a designated member of the travel party. Upon return, the Academic Counselor will deliver the original exam to the instructor. In some cases, the instructor may ask the proctor to shred the original exam once the instructor confirms receipt of the exam via email.
Option Three: Alternate Site Testing with a UNL Faculty Proctor
- On rare occasions, an instructor may prefer that the student-athlete take the exam on the same day, perhaps even at the same time, as every other student in the course with the exam being proctored by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) faculty member. In this instance, the student-athlete’s Academic Counselor will make arrangements with the head coach for a UNL faculty member to travel with the team and proctor the exam.
- The Academic Counselor will pick up the exam in a sealed envelope with the instructor signature over the seal and deliver the exam to the proctor. Directions from the instructor are included on the outside of the envelope for the proctor.
- Once the student-athlete has completed the exam, the proctor places the exam into a newly sealed envelope with signature over the seal. The proctor returns the envelope to the Academic Counselor who delivers it directly to the instructor.
Proctoring Exams for a Visiting Player
- When a visiting student-athlete is required to take an exam while at the University of Nebraska, the Athletics Department will do everything reasonable to accommodate any proctoring requirements of the visiting student-athlete’s home institution. This may include, but is not limited to, facilitating the identification of a UNL faculty member to proctor the exam or helping to schedule the exam at the Digital Learning Center. In a situation where it is not possible for a faculty member to serve as proctor, the Director of Academics, in consultation with the representative who made the request from the visiting school, will have the authority to approve as proctor a non-faculty member.