The policies set forth below are applicable to TUD Department of Chemistry courses. Individual instructors may at their sole discretion modify or ignore certain of the policies and will notify students of such modifications. All instructors retain the right to change any policy at any time and will immediately notify students of the changes.
Students are expected to attend all lecture and laboratory sessions. Although we may not routinely take attendance for lecture sessions, lecture attendance has been demonstrated to correlate positively to the final grade. Everything discussed during class and in the noted portions of the textbooks and supplemental materials is important. Your instructors do not have the time or the desire to re-teach the class for you personally if you miss a lecture. Do not call or email the instructor or visit the instructor’s office asking what was covered during a session which you did not attend. Do not expect the instructor to personally tutor you on missed material.
There are often handouts or announcements during class. As the instructor is not your personal librarian, if you miss class and do not receive the handouts/announcements, do not expect the instructor to have a copy available for you in the future at your convenience. Likewise, exams or other graded materials are returned during class. If you do not get your exam when they are returned to the entire class, the instructor will return it at his convenience, not yours. Do not visit the instructor’s office to ask for copies of handouts or exams.
Tests and exams (scheduled or unannounced) are administered at the time chosen by the instructor based on pedagogic principles. Missing scheduled exams/tests or unannounced exams/tests due to class absence is detrimental to the student’s learning. Therefore, there is really no “good” excuse for missing an exam/test. The TUD chemistry faculty will, however, administer makeup exams at a time chosen for the faculty’s convenience. Makeup exams may be different and more difficult than the exam administered at the regularly scheduled time.
Laboratory attendance is not optional. TUD does not have the personnel or resources to conduct make-up lab sessions. A student who misses laboratory sessions cannot be judged to have mastered the subject even with satisfactory performance in the lecture portion of the course. Accordingly, we will generally excuse one missed laboratory with proper documentation of illness or dire emergency. Students who repeatedly miss laboratory sessions for whatever reason cannot pass that course and should drop it.
Students should generally expect that everything discussed by their instructors is important. Accordingly, tardiness to class results in the student missing important material. If you must be late to lecture sessions, common courtesy dictates that you enter the room with as little disturbance as possible. Tardiness to laboratory sessions is not acceptable. Important safety information, tips on techniques, and changes or updates to the procedures are generally discussed during the first few minutes of each lab session. Tardy students who miss that important information are a safety hazard to themselves and others. Expect significant penalties (exact policies on this are up to the individual instructors) when you arrive late for laboratory sessions.
As can be deduced from the number of times attendance has been discussed, the TUD Department of Chemistry faculty consider attendance to all classes an imperative component of success in all of our courses. Students sometimes think that occurrences in their private lives or in their jobs are more important than attending class. That is a personal decision that each student must make after taking into consideration the position of the faculty. After you have made the decision to miss a class meeting, you must accept personal responsibility for that decision. Your decision to not attend class will not in any way affect the way that class is conducted during your absence. Therefore, it is not necessary to notify the faculty by phone or by email when you will miss class. If you decide to miss class, do not call or email asking what will be covered during your absence and do not call or email afterwards to find out what was covered. Students have the sole responsibility for mastering class materials. The responsibility of the faculty is to present that material at the scheduled time and place.
Chemistry labs can be dangerous places. The TSUD chemistry faculty make a list of mandatory laboratory safety rules and procedures available to all chemistry students. These rules are given to each student, are posted on the Chemistry Department bulletin board and are available on the Chemistry Department web pages :
Students who violate these rules may have their laboratory grades substantially lowered or may be ejected from the laboratories. As noted above, since laboratory attendance is required to pass laboratory courses, ejection from the laboratory will result in failure of course.
The use of cell phones in TUD Department of Chemistry classrooms or laboratories is strictly prohibited. The ringing or vibration of cell phones during class is distracting, intrusive, and rude to the instructor and to all students in the class.