Accommodations, Student Responsibility and Assessment

Hampden-Sydney College provides students with sufficiently documented learning disabilities appropriate accommodations to the traditional learning environment.  A learning disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity.  Hampden-Sydney's goal is to ensure that courses and examinations accurately reflect the individual's aptitude and achievement level.  To facilitate this goal, Hampden-Sydney will make necessary alternative arrangements to the extent those arrangements neither fundamentally alter the course or the measurement of skills and knowledge, nor result in an undue burden on the College.   

Academic accommodations will be determined based on the individual student's needs and abilities and will be made on a case-by-case basis.  Academic accommodations may include, for example,

1.      provision for additional time on timed examinations to be determined on an individual basis;

2.      permission to tape record lectures;

3.      quiet room to take examinations;

4.      use of a word processor and spell checker for essay examinations;

5.      advance syllabus or course outline (when available), which lists textbooks and other required reading;

6.      note-taker for class;

7.      permission to use a personal laptop computer for in-class assignments and note-taking;

8.      in consultation with the instructor, alternate test format, oral exams, or special projects in lieu of a written exam;

9.      ability to submit a final draft early for suggestions from the professor;

10.    facilities for registration and a liaison with Recordings for the Blind, Inc., or other organizations that provide textbooks on tape for handicapped persons;

11.    teaching and academic advising sensitive to the student's special needs;

12.    programs specially designed to meet a student's needs in writing and/or mathematics (in the Writing Center or with Mathematics Department tutors) so that the student will be better prepared to complete the College's proficiency and core requirements;

13.    in the case of severe language based learning disabilities, permission to substitute an approved sequence of courses for the foreign language requirement.

All Hampden-Sydney students, including those with diagnosed learning disabilities, may:

1.      petition the Executive Committee of the Faculty to drop a course without penalty at any time during the semester before Exam Week; (Note: such a petition must provide strong reasons why the student is unable to complete the work in progress.)

2.      petition the Dean of the Faculty to carry a course under-load;

3.      petition the Executive Committee of the Faculty for extra time for graduation;

4.      with permission of his instructor, take an incomplete in a class.

The Dean of the Faculty or the Executive Committee has complete discretion to determine whether circumstances warrant granting the accommodations outlined above.

All students who have been previously diagnosed with ADHD or a disability which causes functional learning difficulties are strongly encouraged to submit supporting medical documentation to the Office of Academic Success well before their first term to ensure the appropriate accommodations are in place.  Students are permitted to submit documentation and request accommodations at any point in the term, but must realize that accommodations are not retroactive.  In cases where the student chooses not to register his disability with the Office of Academic Success or fails to disclose his accommodation letter to his instructor, the student forgoes reasonable accommodations for the course(s.)  Also, in such cases, the Dean of the Faculty or the Executive committee will not ordinarily regard this decision as an "extenuating circumstance" that would serve as a strong argument for a grade revision or overturning an academic suspension.

Revision approved by Dean of the Faculty on January 29, 2010