Dear Colleagues,
We write to you ahead of the start of instruction for the fall semester to update you about campus procedures for offering flexibility to student athletes who are fulfilling their athletic commitments while maintaining their academic responsibilities. First, we would like to offer our sincere gratitude for your assistance last year as we navigated many hurdles: a new conference, additional travel, and new dynamics for transfer students, to name a few. Many instructors provided useful feedback, and we are continuing to invest in systems and processes that we hope will make supporting our student athletes easier for all.
We ask again for your partnership to assist students as they navigate their academic and intercollegiate athletic commitments. This year, if you have student athletes in your courses who have scheduling conflicts due to travel for university-sanctioned events, you will receive a letter from the Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) and the Athletic Study Center (ASC) listing each student, their foreseeable conflicts, and a proposed proctoring solution. Before the end of the second week of classes (Wednesday, September 10, 2025), student athletes will contact you to discuss alternative arrangements for any missed coursework or class sessions.
Scheduling Conflicts with Academic Commitments and Proctoring
The Senate guidelines for scheduling conflicts with academic commitments are applicable for all students. The guidelines were revised in the fall of 2023 by the Undergraduate Council. We appreciate your support in offering flexibility to student athletes who are fulfilling their athletic commitments while maintaining their academic responsibilities, including allowing students to attend different sections, early submission of assignments, and alternative proctoring for students traveling during scheduled tests. If you believe a student athlete's conflicts make it impossible for them to successfully complete your course, please inform the student and email asc-proctoring@berkeley.edu
Additional support is available for proctoring tests in the event that students are not able to take scheduled tests due to travel. The central exam proctoring resource for student athletes is the ASC, an independent organization in the Division of Undergraduate Education. Staff in the ASC coordinate and proctor exams, in addition to services provided by a number of other Senate-approved proctoring resources. The ASC has also implemented a secure online system for providing and accessing exams, the details of which will be shared in each student’s travel letter, which we will send to the student’s instructors before the end of week 2 of classes. This system was successfully piloted last spring during finals weeks.
Thank you for all that you are doing to support our campus and the education of our students.
Oliver O’Reilly
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Faculty Athletics Representative
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Tarik Glenn
Executive Director of the Athletic Study Center
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