Student-Athletes Policy and Guidance
This resource offers guidance on university policies relating to student-athlete class attendance and final examination administration, including dealing with absences and schedule conflicts. It provides general policy information and contacts for questions about student-athlete academic matters. This resource relates to students participating in intercollegiate (“varsity”) athletics and not to students participating in club sports, intramurals, or other activities not involving Stanford’s intercollegiate programs.
The policies and guidance reflect the principle that Stanford student-athletes are, first and foremost, Stanford students.
Attendance, travel, and scheduling
Class attendance policies
Stanford student-athletes often travel during the week to competitions, including, for many, regular trips to the East Coast for Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) competitions. As a result, these students may spend meaningful time away from campus, which has implications for class attendance and other course activities.
Stanford’s basic policies and principles relating to class attendance and course requirements, which reflect both National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and university policies, are are summarized for instructors as follows:
- Participation in intercollegiate athletics does not exempt student-athletes from attendance policies, assignment deadlines, or other course requirements.
- Under NCAA rules, a student-athlete may miss class only for competition and competition-related activities, such as travel.
- A coach cannot require a student‐athlete to attend practice, workouts, meetings, conditioning, physical therapy, or other team-related activities if the student-athlete has a demonstrated academic conflict (e.g., class session, lab, exam, or field trip) or retaliate against a student-athlete for missing team activities because of academic commitments.
- Departments and instructors set attendance policies for their specific courses; instructors have discretion regarding allowances for absences from class and assignments.
- Student-athletes may receive the same allowances for attendance provided to other students.
- Under the end-quarter policy, athletics may not schedule regular season athletic competitions during the end-quarter and final exam periods unless specifically approved by the Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policy (C-USP).
- Under the end-quarter examinations policy, varsity student-athletes may participate in NCAA, conference, and similar championship tournaments or competitions involving varsity teams during the end of quarter and final exam periods. In such cases, instructors should make alternative arrangements for the exam for those students.
Identifying student-athletes' travel commitments in your class
At the beginning of the academic term, the Athletic Academic Resource Center (AARC) provides instructors with information about known travel commitments for in-season student-athletes in their classes.
Student-athlete responsibilities
A student-athlete who will participate in a postseason tournament or other championship event is expected to notify instructors as soon as possible after learning that they will be in that event.
Schedule conflicts during the quarter
Instructors have full discretion regarding whether and how to address student-athlete class absences and assignments that arise before the end-quarter period.
Regarding absences, the university encourages instructors to work with students in ways that neither unduly penalize them nor provide them with an unfair advantage, and that provide them with a fair opportunity to demonstrate their engagement with the class material.
In handling student-athlete absences, you might consider actions such as the following. Note that each suggestion below may work better in some course contexts than others. The list is not exhaustive, and it is at the discretion of the instructor to employ these, or similar, approaches:
- Excusing an absence in a class where attendance is required.
- Allowing a missed class to be made up through office hours.
- Arranging for additional assignments to be completed in place of missed class participation. In this case, a best practice is to focus the supplemental assignment on missed learning as much as possible.
- Extending assignment due dates that fall within periods of travel.
- Excluding missed midterms or quizzes from the final grade and assigning more weight to later assessments or the final exam.
- For courses with larger enrollments, setting up a central place to receive students’ updates regarding travel and requests regarding assignments or missed classes may help instructors organize and respond efficiently (e.g., a Google form or ungraded quiz in the course Canvas site).
- Recording your class sessions and making the videos available to student-athletes (see Class recording and remote access below).
Because conflicts can sometimes arise with little advance notice, such as when a student-athlete is added to a travel roster or qualifies for an event, or when television broadcast partners change competition schedules, instructors should be aware that there may be last-minute requests for flexibility.
See Preparing for Student Absences for additional ideas for addressing student absences.
Final examination scheduling
NCAA and conference tournaments, playoffs, bowl games, and similar postseason championship tournaments or events involving varsity athletic teams may involve travel and competitions that conflict with scheduled examination dates. Stanford’s end-quarter examinations policy provides that, in those cases, instructors should make alternative arrangements for the exam. Arrangements could include:
- scheduling exams before the student‐athlete leaves campus
- scheduling exams after the student‐athlete returns from competition
- requesting for exams to be administered (including proctoring, as appropriate) away from campus, with the assistance of AARC.
The timing of travel to and from competitions, and the timing of a student-athlete’s participation in the championship competition, should also be considered when scheduling exams away from campus. In addition to the actual competition itself, participation may include meetings, meals, warm-up activities, recovery, treatment, and media obligations.
In making the alternative arrangements, instructors are asked to consider the realities of travel and competition and the pressure on a student-athlete facing a final exam and participation in a championship event. This helps avoid situations such as student-athletes taking exams on an airplane or at a time ending shortly before a championship game.
Trials for Olympic teams, try-outs for national teams, events carried out by professional leagues, or similar events involving individual varsity student-athletes are not treated the same as varsity team competitions. While the AARC encourages instructors to be understanding of individual student situations, the examination policy does not require alternative arrangements in those cases.
Contacts, questions, and reporting concerns
Undergraduate Advising Directors
Undergraduate Advising Directors (UAD) for student-athletes are the primary advising contact regarding student-athletes. The UADs are housed in the AARC and:
- work closely with student-athletes on academic planning, including major selection, course selection and scheduling, eligibility, and graduate and professional school preparation
- assist with the resolution of schedule conflicts
- oversee drop-in, group, and remote tutoring support
- provide coordination and exam administration support to faculty members
- monitor and report on student-athlete academic performance and experience, including requirement fulfillment and progress to degree
- work closely with coaches, instructors, and student-athletes to identify and resolve potential issues.
The AARC and UADs welcome communication with you regarding all aspects of a student-athlete’s participation in class, including attendance, academic performance, or classroom conduct. For specific issues relating to schedule conflicts, contact the UADs, not the athletic coaches.
Student-Athlete Handbook and other resources
The Student-Athlete Handbook (PDF) and the academic advising website are other key sources of guidance for student-athletes regarding academic policies and expectations.
The Faculty Athletics Representative
The Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) is a faculty member appointed to the position by university leadership. The FAR role focuses on:
- academic integrity in the athletics program
- academic opportunities and the academic performance of student-athletes
- the well-being of student-athletes
- the experience of student-athletes as members of the student community
- institutional control over athletics
- compliance with NCAA and conference rules.
The FAR engages with university leadership, the Faculty Senate and Academic Council committees, faculty members, athletics leadership, student-athletes, and counterparts in the ACC. Faculty are welcome to contact the FAR regarding student-athlete academics or other athletics matters.
Contact information
UADs for student-athletes are led by Meredith Basil, Associate Dean of Academic Advising. She can be contacted at mbasil@stanford.edu or 650-724-1054.
The current FAR is Jay A. Mitchell, Professor of Law, Emeritus. He can be reached at jmitchell@stanford.edu or 650-724-0014.
Recording course sessions and remote access
Recording course sessions
Recording course sessions can help student-athletes have high-quality access to classroom instruction. If you teach lectures or other classes suitable for recording, consider recording your class sessions and making the videos available to student-athletes. At your discretion, these recordings could also be shared with other students who may have missed classes for other reasons. Audio recording your class session is another possibility.
Every course is different and recording presents several challenges, so we encourage you to carefully consider the implications of recording on your course and students. We encourage you to check with your department leaders for current policies or practices. See Recording Course Meetings for more discussion and guidance.
Remote access to sections and office hours
Remote access to discussion sections and office hours can help student-athletes engage with course content and instructors when traveling. If your course has sections, consider making one or more sections accessible remotely for traveling student-athletes. If possible, schedule sections at different times during the week. You might also allow traveling student-athletes to participate remotely in some office hours and review sessions through Zoom. We also recommend first checking with department leaders for department-specific policies or practices.
Syllabus availability and course expectations
Consider making your course syllabus available before registration opens. See the Canvas Syllabus Tool for more on making your syllabus available.
Set clear expectations around your policies regarding attendance and missed classes. This benefits all students in your class. For more guidance on syllabus preparation, see Building an Inclusive Syllabus. Also, view and download the CTL syllabus template for additional guidance and sample language.
Academic integrity
If you have an academic integrity concern with a student-athlete, follow the same procedures as for any other student, including contacting the Office of Community Standards to discuss a potential concern or to file a formal concern.
NCAA compliance
NCAA rules cover matters relevant to faculty, such as class attendance, provision of benefits to student-athletes, and recruiting activities. For more information about those rules or any NCAA-related questions or concerns, contact the Compliance Services Office in the Athletics department at stanfordcompliance@stanford.edu.