Time Away

Students should schedule an Impactful Time Away Consultation with Academic Support to discuss the circumstances impacting their ability to engage in coursework and determine which type of personal leave is right for the current situation. The circumstances impacting a student must not meet the criteria of the health or academic leaves of absence to be classified as a personal leave of absence. 

Planned Personal Leave

Students may plan to take a personal leave in an upcoming semester; they will need to successfully complete their academic work in the semester prior to taking the leave. Students are eligible to request a personal leave in the subsequent semester up until the Friday before the start of classes each semester.

Unplanned Personal Leave

Students may go on a personal leave to address unplanned and pressing personal and/or familial issues that arose after the semester has begun. Students will withdraw from all their coursework in the current semester to address the circumstances that led to their decision to take time away.

Students on a personal leave are expected to take time away from academics. Those who hope to study full-time at another institution should apply instead for Study Abroad or Study Away.

In some circumstances or as directed in the Impactful Time Away Consultation, it may make sense for students to take courses as a guest student at another institution at home while they are on leave. Students should complete the Transfer Credit Approval Application form prior to enrolling in coursework to ensure that the courses are eligible for transfer credit. 

Students who take personal leaves may apply to return by submitting a re-enrollment application.

To initiate a health leave, students may consult with their dean, the Office of Academic Support, and/or a member of the medical or counseling staff at the Health and Wellness Center. If students work with medical or mental health professionals outside of the College, students should ask their providers to speak with the Director of Medical Services or the Director of Counseling Services as they prepare for taking a health leave from the College. 

Occasionally, a staff member at the College who works closely with the student may recommend that a student take a health leave. In such cases, a student may decline and attempt to address their circumstances while remaining enrolled.

While on a health leave, students are expected to receive appropriate care, address the circumstances that led to their leave, and develop new strategies to through sustained treatment and/or meaningful work. 

As the leave progresses, students are encouraged to engage in activities that test their strategies and demonstrate their ability to maintain challenging situations, such as employment, volunteering, and/or taking courses as a guest student at another institution at home while they are on leave. Students should complete the Transfer Credit Approval Application form prior to enrolling in coursework to ensure that the courses are eligible for transfer credit.

To return from a leave of absence, students will complete an application for re-enrollment and must submit a healthcare provider form to the Director of Counseling and/or Medical Services. 

In deciding when a student can return, the College’s Re-Enrollment Committee will consult with the Directors of Medical and Counseling Services to make an individualized assessment of the student’s readiness to return. 

It is important to note that if a student takes a health leave when a semster is in-progress, they will not be permitted to submit a re-enrollment application for the following semester

There may be instances in which the Dean of Student Life will convene a confidential evaluation committee composed of representatives from the Health and Wellness Center, the Residential Life, and the Student Life and Student Success teams to make a holistic and individualized assessment of whether to mandate a health leave of absence for a student. 

The Dean of Student Life will do so if it appears that the student may be:

• presenting a substantial risk of harm to self or others,
• significantly disrupting educational or other activities of the College community,
• unable to participate meaningfully in educational activities,
• requiring a level of care from the College community which exceeds the resources and staffing that the College can reasonably be expected to provide for the student’s wellbeing,
• and/or, presenting other evidence of insufficiently good physical or psychological health to meet academic commitments or to continue in residence at the College.

In evaluating the need to mandate a leave, the committee may consult with the dean and other community members as the committee deems appropriate. At the student’s request, the committee may consider psychological and medical assessments made by the student’s providers as well as the College’s Health and Wellness Center staff. 

The committee will also consider alternative interventions, such as reducing the student’s course load. If the committee determines that these alternatives are insufficient or impractical and that time away is necessary, they will require that a student take a health leave. The committee's decisions are final. The Dean of Student Life may place a student on an immediate and interim health leave of absence until the evaluation committee can complete its process. Students on interim health leaves may not return to campus until the leave is lifted.

An academic leave may be initiated by the student or mandated by the Committee on Academic Standing. Academic leaves will last a minimum of one semester, but a student may be required to take one full academic year away by the Committee on Academic Standing.

Students are also encouraged to engage in activities that test their strategies, demonstrate their ability to manage challenging situations, maintain progress towards completing their degree requirements, and/or demonstrate their ability to successfully engage in coursework. The Committee on Academic Standing will send the students a detailed letter with expectations about the length of the leave and requirements of return, which may include taking coursework at other institutions. Students should complete the Transfer Credit Approval Application form prior to enrolling in coursework to ensure that the courses are eligible for transfer credit.

Students who take academic leaves may apply to return by submitting a re-enrollment application. Official transcripts for coursework taken at other institutions must be submitted to the Registrar’s Office prior to submitting an application, or the application will not be reviewed by the Re-Enrollment Committee.

If courses are in-progress when re-enrollment applications are due, students should submit the scores on graded assignments and/or a letter of support from their professor(s)/instructor(s) about engagement in the course(s). The student may be approved to return, albeit conditionally, provided that an official transcript be submitted by the deadline detailed in the approval letter from the Re-Enrollment Committee.