Student Handbook Update
With course registration and final examinations approaching, it would be a good idea to take a look at the College’s Student Handbook. It is available online at http://www.law.uiowa.edu/students/handbook.php. Although most of the content remains the same, I have enhanced some sections and removed some information that no longer seemed relevant or was available on the College of Law’s website. This memo highlights the changes.
The biggest change to the Handbook is organization. The Handbook has been reorganized into numbered sections and subsections for greater ease of use. It is now organized into sections on Registration, Examinations, Graduation Requirements, Academics, University and Building Polices, Emergency Information, Student Services and Support, Organizations and Activities, and an Appendix including the College’s writing requirements, Policy on Accommodating Students with Disabilities and Polices on Academic and Non-Academic Misconduct.
I have removed other items from the Handbook because the information is either outdated or available at another location, such as the website. The following information no longer appears in the Handbook:
Guide to courses, available at http://www.law.uiowa.edu/academics;
- Focused study, curriculum by subject area, and unique opportunities for courses of study, available at http://www.law.uiowa.edu/academics;
- Alumni and Iowa Law School Foundation, available at http://www.uifoundation.org/law/;
- Bar examination and admission information, available at http://www.law.uiowa.edu/careers/barexam.php;
- Iowa City-things to do;
- Mail; and
- Telephones.
A couple of the policies have also been rewritten. In September, each of you received a copy of the updated Policy on Accommodating Students with Disabilities. This policy is also located in the appendix to the Handbook.
I have also reformatted and expanded the examination policy to include administrative policies. The following list summarizes the additions by subsection heading:
- Anonymous grading: describes the anonymous grading process in greater detail.
- Laptop test taking: discusses permissible use of ExamSoft test taking software.
- Examination times, locations, and procedures: lists times of examinations and procedures for dealing with computer malfunctions.
- Scheduled absences from examinations: includes the policy for rescheduling examinations in the event of a conflict with a religious holiday and the procedure for petitioning to reschedule examinations for other scheduled events.
- Make-up examinations: states that students who will be taking make-up examinations are forbidden from discussing the examinations with anyone prior to completion.
- Missed examinations: states the consequences of missing an examination.
- Materials permitted during an examination: specifically lists the materials allowed for closed-book, partial-open-book, and open-book examinations.
- Communication prohibited: disallows communications between students about an examination during an examination.
- Late arrival to an examination: states that no extra time is given to late arrivals unless the instructor expressly permits.
- Academic misconduct: encourages students to report examination related misconduct.
- Departure from the examination room: outlines guidelines for students leaving the room during an examination, both for breaks and when finished with the examination, and generally discourages departures because they disrupt other examination takers.
- Failure to return examination materials: calls for students to return examination materials before leaving the exam room.
Other minor changes include rewriting or renaming sections. For example, the copy center section has been rewritten and the co-curricular limitations section was renamed the co-curricular credit hours rule.
If you have any questions, please contact Rene Arps in the Deans’ suite to schedule an appointment with me.