The DVM professional program at MU-CVM is an in-person program. Students are expected to attend lectures, rotations, and assessments as scheduled. The CVM also recognizes that unexpected situations occur—people become ill, alarms fail, and cars break down. In addition, during clinical rotations, students may take up to 5 planned, approved, and excused days away from clinical duty. (CAP=Clinical absence, planned)
Assessment absences and make-up procedures follow the Faculty-Approved Assessment Policy. Course-specific requirements are determined by the course coordinator and communicated to students in the course syllabus.
Pre-clinical (Didactic) Absences
There are 3 categories of absences during the pre-clinical (didactic) portion of the curriculum. All absences require the student to communicate with their instructors about any missed assessments or course work.
Excused absences are not granted for holiday travel or family events. Requests to attend professional or scientific meetings are limited to two excused absences totaling no more than 4 missed school days (inclusive of travel days) per instructional period (IP). Absences are encouraged to not exceed 2 school days.
- Excused: Illness/hardship/injury
- Personal emergencies beyond the student’s control, such as illness or injury to the student or an immediate family member, or a death in the immediate family. Please complete the online student absence notification form as soon as possible after you know you will miss class.
- Failure to submit the form in a timely manner may result in the absence being considered unexcused.
- Individual course directors may reserve the right to ask for medical documentation. In patterns of frequent health-related absences, Associate Dean’s office may ask for documentation, also.
- Conditional: Veterinary Conference/Meeting Attendance/ Corporate Rep Training, etc.: conference participation that may qualify as excused when consistent with college policy, the relevant course syllabus, and instructor approval.
- Attendance at professional or scientific meetings that provide exceptional professional benefit to the student. SAVMA Symposium is the highest priority opportunity for the college DVM students. All others exist on a continuum of merit. Attendance of scientific meetings for national organizations having a student club correlate are strongest. Being a national officer/delegate in that organization, and/or presentation of a scientific poster/abstract are also compelling factors. Breed association meetings, husbandry/stockman’s conferences, animal/horse/livestock shows are of less merit for conditional absences. Exceptions will be evaluated by the Associate Dean based upon factors above, precedent, and discretion.
- One notification form per person per event. Group notifications are no longer accepted or encouraged.
- Unexcused: weddings, personal events, additional conference attendance beyond what is permitted, and other absences that do not meet the criteria for an excused absence.
- If you plan to miss an exam or assignment for an unexcused reason, you must discuss the situation with the instructor well in advance to determine whether a make-up assessment is possible. Instructors are not required to grant these requests and may assign a score of zero for missed work due to an unexcused absence. Students must still complete the online student absence notification form, so the absence is documented, even if it is unexcused.
Student Leave Policy for Clinical Training
Only excused absences are allowed during clinical training. Again, there are two types of excused absences: one for expected absence of any type, and another for unexpected hardship (e.g., illness, injury, family death).
Clinical Absences, Planned (CAP days)
Students are allowed up to 5 days of planned excused absence (CAP days) during their entire clinical training (of course, this is in addition to scheduled blocks of time off and a day allotted to board examination and/or accreditation). Overall, a maximum of 2 CAP days during a three or more-credit hour rotation or a maximum of 1 CAP day during a two-credit hour rotation are allowed. Because rotations often include weekend and holiday duty, absence forms and appropriate permissions for weekend/holiday absences may be required; these would count against the total of 5 days allowed.
These CAP days can be used for any purpose but require instructor permission. A CAP Request form must be completed. Permission must be obtained from the course coordinator or instructional leader at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the clinical rotation during which the absence date will occur, and the CAP Request form should be completed at approximately the same time. It would be considered a courtesy to send a reminder email to the on-duty clinical instructor and technician a few days before the planned absence.
Board Examinations and Accreditation Day
Students planning to take National and/or State Board Examinations any time prior to graduation must submit a CAP Request form to the appropriate course coordinator at least four weeks prior to the beginning of the rotation in which the absence will occur, but ideally as soon as possible after scheduling. In the rare instance where functioning of a service could not be maintained due to the absence, the request may be denied and the student may have to reschedule the examination. A day off will be granted to those attending Accreditation Day events. These planned absences will not count against the five allowed CAP days, but any travel days will be counted toward the five days allowed.
Visiting Scholar Graduation
Students planning to attend graduation ceremonies at any of the visiting scholar schools (e.g, Ross, St. George, St. Matthews should submit a CAP Request form at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the clinical rotation during which the absence date will occur. The actual date of graduation will not count as one of the 5 allowed CAP days, but any absence for travel will be counted against the allowed days.
Clinical Absences, Unplanned
When unanticipated absence is necessary (e.g., illness), the student should notify their supervising clinician and technician by telephone and/or email as soon as possible so that case responsibility and duties can be reassigned. In addition, the Academic and Student Affairs office should be notified using the online Student Absence Notification form. More than one day of unplanned but excused absence per rotation may require additional assignments or time to be made up at a later date; a grade of incomplete may be assigned until the learning outcomes have been satisfactorily achieved. If multiple days are missed (e.g., a long illness), the rotation may need to be rescheduled entirely. A leave of absence may be appropriate in some such instances.