{"id":345,"date":"2013-01-17T00:34:31","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T05:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/?p=345"},"modified":"2013-01-17T00:36:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T05:36:13","slug":"the-dean-of-studies-office-and-incompletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/2013\/01\/17\/the-dean-of-studies-office-and-incompletes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dean of Studies Office and “Incompletes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The college catalogue defines an incomplete as an indication of \u201ca deferred examination or other work not completed, for reasons of health or serious emergency<\/span>.\u201d I\u2019ll get back to that underlined part.\u00a0 To receive an incomplete, students must go through the Dean of Studies, the Dean of Freshmen, or their class adviser.\u00a0 The college health service may be involved, if necessary.<\/p>\n

There are so many possible scenarios in which a student with a disability might find the need to take an incomplete at the end of the semester.\u00a0 Students with learning disabilities might take longer to complete their work and find and find themselves in need of more time.\u00a0 Students with anxiety disorders may have so much anxiety that it can become paralyzing and make it difficult to complete work.\u00a0 Students with chronic illnesses may get sick at any time, making it more difficult to complete their work on time as well.\u00a0 Each of these scenarios is likely to be worsened by the fact that it is the end of the semester when a student considers taking an incomplete.\u00a0 Most students would agree that it is the end of the semester when a disability is the hardest to deal with. \u00a0The end of the semester is when the stakes are the highest academically.\u00a0 I wonder, why might the dean of studies office be least flexible at a time like this? Students say that the dean of studies office does not understand that when you have a chronic disability, these sorts of scenarios can happen whenever.\u00a0 One student said, \u201cIt\u2019s not an emergency, it\u2019s just how your life is.\u201d<\/p>\n

I spoke with a few students registered with AEO who have had experience with requesting to take an incomplete.\u00a0 These students requested incompletes for reasons related to their disability but each of them had difficult experiences with their requests.\u00a0 This is largely because of the college\u2019s definition of an incomplete- specifically that \u00a0there must be an unexpected \u201cemergency\u201d to take an incomplete.\u00a0 Because of this emergency policy, the Dean of Studies Office does not expect students to have to take an incomplete more than once.\u00a0 This is not stated in the college catalogue.\u00a0 But if these students are requesting an incomplete because of an issue due to their disability, how will they know that they won\u2019t come across the problem they are having again? A disability is not a one-time thing, so why should it be treated that way?\u00a0 Unfortunately, many students have reported that even after being granted incompletes, their deans have emphasized to them that their incomplete was a one-time thing and that they will not be allowed to take an incomplete for such reasons again.<\/p>\n

If you do request to take an incomplete due to a disability related issue, it may be wise to first speak with someone in AEO.\u00a0 If he or she is supportive of your decision, it may also be best to have him or her come to your meeting with your Dean (This is where it helps to be familiar with at least someone in AEO).\u00a0 For example, if you have been seeing an academic coach who knows you well, he or she might be able to support you in your decision.\u00a0 From the experience of a couple of students, I know that this has been an important factor.<\/p>\n

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The college catalogue defines an incomplete as an indication of \u201ca deferred examination or other work not completed, for reasons of health or serious emergency.\u201d I\u2019ll get back to that underlined part.\u00a0 To receive an incomplete, students must go through … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45312],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aeo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/accessingvassar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}