Timelines for Disability-Related Requests
ARC receives daily requests throughout the year from students, faculty and staff at TCNJ. Because of this high demand, we cannot provide “next day” meetings for requests received after business hours. Please try to anticipate your needs so we have time to assist you before a crisis occurs.
Some requests require obtaining information, assistance and approvals from other departments or outside sources. The timeliness of their responses is not under our control. Please be patient. We will notify you as soon as a resolution to the issue is reached.
Effective Date of Accommodations
Accommodations go into effect in a course at the time the student discusses the contents of the accommodations letter with the instructor for that course, with the exception that a minimum of three business days’ notice must be given to the instructor to obtain extra time or an alternative location for an evaluation, test or other assessment. Accommodations are never retroactive and will not change grades or assignments that occur before this discussion.
Grade Appeals
All grade appeals should be made by the student through the processes of the individual academic department. ARC will not support a grade appeal that is initiated later than the department’s appeal deadline, or more than two weeks after the grade is posted, whichever is earlier.
Testing Accommodations
We receive a large number of requests to proctor exams for reasons related to the students’ disabilities. Our resources are limited, and we cannot provide proctoring for exams rescheduled to facilitate travel, vacations, social events, family reunions, interviews, etc. Visit the ARC proctoring page for more information.
A student whose accommodations include testing in an alternative location and/or extended testing time must give the instructor a minimum of 5 (five) business days’ notice, to allow the instructor time to make arrangements.
Requests for ARC to proctor exams can be initiated by either the instructor or the student (after consultation with each other), at least three days before the exam is scheduled to be administered. For final exams, requests should be made by the date posted on the proctoring page or at least one month prior to the start of finals if no deadline is specified. ARC can only provide proctoring services when staff are available, and within our normal business hours, which sometimes means that the exam cannot be given on the same day or time (weekend or evening exams) as it is taken by the rest of the class. We cannot proctor exams in foreign language courses if any exam component requires that the proctor read in the language being tested.
Housing Accommodations
Students requesting housing accommodations are responsible for the following:
- Housing accommodations requests must be made every year by the date posted on our webpage.
- Requests are reevaluated each year. Having a housing accommodation in one year does not guarantee that you will have it in a subsequent year.
- Requests that are incomplete or received after the deadline will be placed on a waiting list and will be evaluated as rooms become available after the campus-wide housing selection process.
- Requests that differ from year to year require additional medical documentation to support any changes.
- Students requesting housing accommodations must still: get a lottery slot, commit to a housing contract and and select their meal plan.
- Housing accommodations are for the student with the disability only, and cannot be used to pull in a roommate or to place a friend in a neighboring room, unless housing regulations allow that for any student in that particular location. A student who does not receive a lottery time slot that gives him/her on-campus housing cannot be pulled in as a roommate, regardless of the location or type of room. This is a campus-wide policy. There are no exceptions.
- A student who has been approved for disability-related housing accommodations will be assigned to a room that meets his or her documented needs, within the limits of what is available and appropriate on this campus. If the student rejects the room assignment or chooses to transfer out of that room or to participate in a room swap, that student will not be eligible to receive housing accommodations later in the semester.
- Roommates will not be assigned on the basis of their ability to assist the affiliated student with medical, psychological, or social needs, even if the potential roommate is willing to provide that assistance.
- After the start of a semester, requests for a change of room for disability-related reasons will place the student on a waiting list. Filling requests from the waiting list can only occur when a suitable room becomes available and may or may not be possible during a given semester.
Emotional Support Animals (ESAs)
See FAQS about having emotional support animals on campus here.