Student & Support Resources

In the event of an emergency on campus, many students will look to their instructors for guidance. For your safety and theirs, please review SFU's emergency response procedures on the Safety and Risk Management website.

Instructions for emergency situations

1. Call 9-1-1 from any phone, but if you can call from a campus phone, Campus Security will be automatically notified of the call location. There is a phone in every classroom.
2. If you are unsure if it is an emergency, always err on the side of caution.
3. When you call 9-1-1, you will be asked if you need police, fire, or ambulance, what is happening and the location.

Urgent assistance is available 24/7 at each of our campuses

• Emergency line (urgent security/first aid): 778-782-4500
• Non-emergency line (security/Safe Walk): 778-782-7991

Campus Security provides emergency support, first aid response, and guides emergency responders (fire, ambulance, police) to the right place on campus quickly.

Drug Overdose

If you witness an individual suffering a suspected drug overdose, follow general emergency procedures (shown above): call 9-1-1.

Campus Security can get to a person suffering overdose on campus 24/7 and administer Narcan/Naloxone spray (if appropriate for the situation) while awaiting external emergency services personnel. This service is available at all SFU Campuses. Health and Counselling Services also has Narcan/Naloxone in the clinics, which can be administered by a doctor or nurse during clinic hours. 

More information on overdose prevention and response.

Safe Walk Program

The Safe Walk Program provides SFU community members with a Campus Security escort to support safe travel on campus 24/7.

The Safe Walk escort is provided by either a security officer or a student campus safety member. These Safe Walk personnel are equipped with portable radios and flashlights and are in direct communication with the Security Operations Centre dispatcher. Safe Walk personnel can be identified by a valid SFU Campus Security picture identification card.

To request a Safe Walk escort:

• Call the Campus Security non-emergency line at 778-782-7991, or
• Use any of the direct dial telephones located across campus

Remember that you cannot reserve a Safe Walk time; you must call when you need the escort.

Lone Worker Program

If you’re working after hours, contact Campus Security to request the Lone Worker program. Campus Security will have one of their patrol people include your work location on their patrol route, to check on you from time to time, either in person or over the phone. If you do not wish to be bothered, you can let Campus Public Safety know where you are and what time you expect to stay until. If at that time they do not hear from you, they will either phone or physically attend to check up on you.  This service is available 24/7, at all 3 campuses. 

More information on both programs, including how to request the services.

If you suspect a student is in immediate danger, including self-harm, call 9-1-1. 

If a student should come to you with a crisis affecting their mental or emotional well-being, please visit SFU Health and Counselling for information. Here you will find online counselling resources, on-campus counselling support, and the My SSP app which is designed to provide students 24/7 counselling support on their phones.

SFU Health & Counselling offers resources and workshops to recognize distress and/or suicide risk and can help you learn to recognize when it is time to refer students to seek mental health support.

• View support guide
• More information on workshops and to register

You can also visit the Crisis Centre website for additional resources, such as online chat services for youth and adults, and 24-7 support over the phone.

If a student requests accommodations in your course, you will be informed of the accommodations that are required for the student through an official email from the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) to your SFU email address. Please note that the CAL follows compliance procedures and will only send notifications to official SFU email addresses.

Faculty and other staff have a legal responsibility to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified students when notified of the requirement by the CAL. However, there may be elements of the course work that make the authorized accommodation difficult to fulfill, or the request may violate an element of the course which has previously been established as essential (e.g., a request to provide flexibility in grading of spelling and grammar in a basic English course). In this type of situation, you should inform the CAL of the issue so that a full discussion can be undertaken, and effective alternatives identified, where necessary.

More information on student accommodations.

Effective August 2023: Senate formalized the Academic Concessions policy that was introduced during the pandemic. The below excerpt of the policy is most applicable to faculty members and is a change from the previous process:

"Students are not required to present medical documentation when seeking an Academic Concession for minor or short-term illnesses, (that is illnesses expected to last five days or less). Instructors can request medical documentation for students missing a final examination or an assessment worth more than 20% of the final course grade. Instructors must make clear in the course syllabus instances when students must present medical documentation. An instructor may request documentation in addition to the Academic Concession form if they believe a student has misused the Academic Concession process. Students are reminded that filing false Academic Concession requests is a violation of the Student Academic Integrity Policy."

Instructors may be asked to support SFU’s student-athletes by accommodating scheduling conflicts with exams and assignments that occur while a student-athlete is representing SFU at away competitions. At the start of each term, student-athletes are given a letter to present to their instructors. The letter identifies the individual as a student-athlete and sets out the dates on which classes will be missed due to travel. However, sometimes a competition will arise that was not anticipated, and instructors should be sensitive to this fact.

If an instructor is willing to make an accommodation, it is common to have student-athletes write a midterm or exam on the road proctored by their coach. However, if an instructor is uncomfortable with this approach, arrangements can be made to have a tenured professor at the university where the student-athlete will be competing invigilate the exam.

If you as an instructor are unwilling or unable to accommodate a student-athlete's absences, please notify the student before the course drop deadline so that they can find an alternative class. If a student-athlete fails to provide the above-noted letter or does not advise the instructor at the beginning of the semester that there is a potential for missed course components, it is the instructor’s decision as to whether to provide accommodation.

View more information.

https://www.sfu.ca/humanrights/guides-and-protocols/religious-accommodation.html

There has been a huge increase in academic dishonesty at SFU over the last few years, and we are trying to be more proactive. If you have any questions or issues, come and talk to us about options, etc.

• Academic integrity  
• Academic integrity: Faculty Resources  Code of Academic Integrity and Good Conduct
• Academic Dishonesty Report by Instructor .  
• If you have any questions or concerns about how to handle a case of academic dishonesty, please contact theUndergraduate Program director
• For more information, see plagiarism and Turn-it-in website. Please contact the Undergraduate Studies office for a Turn-It-In account ID and password.
• Students requesting more information about privacy should be referred to: SFU Protection of Privacy
  

“FD” Grade is Approved by Senate for Academic Dishonesty

• Please refer to section 10 of Appendix III (Procedure for Academic Dishonesty) for all four S 10 policies.
• FD (Failed-Academic dishonesty) Grade: Please see Student Academic Integrity Procedure (S 10.01 - Procedure).
• If a student receives a grade of FD, the Registrar will automatically change the grade to F once two years have elapsed since the student’s graduation if the student did not commit further acts of academic dishonesty following the imposition of the FD grade.

• Students can drop courses on go.sfu.ca up to end of week 5 (for intersession – up to end of week 3)
• extenuating circumstances are determined by Registrar’s office with appropriate documentation.

Try to return students' papers/assignments to them in class if possible. If this is not possible, papers/assignments should be mailed to the students in self-addressed, stamped envelopes. Assignments cannot be left in the faculty at reception or in Education Reception for pickup.

Using student work for future courses or featuring student work on a website:

• If you would like to use student-created course materials, assignments, or presentations as exemplars for future courses, either in print or on a website (e.g. Facebook or on the Faculty of Education webpage), you must obtain consent from the student.
• To obtain consent, please complete the form with the student.
• The form is fillable – you may have to download it to your desktop in order to fill in the fields.

Recording students at SFU events:

• Please refer to the details on Student Services website for Photo and Video Permissions.
  
• When permission is needed:
  • ALWAYS use a consent form when minor children are involved. i.e., those under 19.
  • When shooting adults in "non-public areas" (e.g., classrooms, private offices, studios, meeting rooms, etc.). However, a consent form is not necessary if the photographer/videographer:
    • Tells people that the photographs/recording will be used and disclosed for educational, recruitment or promotional purposes at the University’s discretion
    • Declares his/her intent to photograph/record, and
    • Advises the audience “If you do not wish to be photographed/recorded please let me know now before I begin to shoot. Then we can position you so that you will not be photographed or recorded.
  • When you have reason to believe that you are shooting photographs or video that will be used for a revenue-producing product.
• Important:
  • Signed consent forms must:
    • Be kept on file and be easily accessible in the main departmental office
    • Be linked, perhaps by file number, to the associated photo or recording so that it is easy to find the relevant consent
    • Be retained on file for as long as the photos/recordings are retained.
• For more information: 
  • See SFU’s Privacy Policy, in particular the section on PHOTOGRAPHY ON CAMPUS.

Please note that SFU Policy GP17 Appendix B states "Instructors must inform students enrolled in their courses that include off-campus activities of the reasonably predicted risks that might be associated with a field activity. This should be an entry in a course outline and a field-trip orientation in class time before the field trip".

More information.