OALA Students and the 7:00 p.m. Final Exam Testing Slot This Fall
On behalf of the Office of the Provost and Faculty Senate, we want to share an important update regarding the final exam testing schedule for fall 2025.
Due to the increasing number of undergraduate students we have, the University, in 2023, expanded the school day by adding additional class meeting times beginning at 7:00 p.m. That new meeting time led to the addition of an extra time slot for final exams at 7:00 p.m., beginning in fall 2024. In addition, the Registrar’s Office has worked diligently over the past several years to rotate final exam periods so as not to have a specific course (and faculty) with a consistently early or late final exam slot.
One of the unintended consequences of the late (i.e., 7:00 p.m.) slot is its impact on our students with accommodations, especially accommodations that include extra time on exams. Most students with testing accommodations complete their exams in the Office of Access and Learning Accommodation (OALA) Testing Center. It is important to note that approximately 1,500 exams are administered in the OALA Testing Center across the five-day final exam period. To address this issue, the OALA staff expands its hours of service each final exam season to meet our students’ needs.
This fall, the substantial exam administration load, in combination with the extra time provided to students as an accommodation, will result in OALA students who are assigned the 7:00 p.m. testing slot likely finishing their exams between 10:00 and 11:30 pm. Requiring students to test at this late hour has equity, legal, and safety ramifications for these students, including the potential disruption of their medical protocol. In addition, expecting students to leave the OALA Testing Center that late at night is not in their best interest, nor is it helpful for them to have another exam, perhaps less than 10 hours later, the following day.
To address this situation, the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate have worked together to address the matter in the following way:
For instructors who are assigned a 7:00 p.m. finals time slot and have a student with a testing accommodation, all 7:00 p.m. exams will be administered at 9:00 a.m. on the same day of the scheduled exam. This scheduling adjustment is necessary because the 9:00 a.m. slot has the lowest volume of exams under the current finals rotation, making it the most feasible time to ensure accommodations can be provided consistently and securely. Other time slots during finals week are already heavily impacted and do not allow the flexibility needed to accommodate the volume of 7:00 p.m. exams. If a student has a finals conflict with the 9:00 a.m. time, OALA will work directly with the student and faculty member in advance to identify an alternative testing time.
For any instructors who have concerns about academic integrity, we are disseminating this message now so that faculty will have sufficient time to prepare an alternative exam if they would like to do so. If an instructor elects to take this approach, OALA will need these alternative exams submitted earlier in the day. The OALA Testing Center will communicate with affected faculty by November 14, 2025, to ensure that they are aware of which students will be completing their exams earlier than the currently scheduled time.
As an FYI, here are the fall 2025 final exam time slots:
9 a.m.
11:30 a.m.
2 p.m.
4:30 p.m.
7 p.m.
Thank you for supporting our 2000+ students who receive services through OALA,
Danny Hernandez, Director of the Office of Access and Learning Accommodation
Eric Robinson, Associate Vice President for Student Access