Documentation Guidelines

In order to receive accommodations, students with disabilities are responsible for providing documentation to the Office of Disability Services. This documentation must both establish disability and provide adequate information on the functional impact of the disability so that accommodations can be identified.  

  1. Documentation should contain the diagnostic criteria, presenting problems, relevant histories (medical, developmental, psychosocial, family, academic, employment), and/or comorbidity.
  2. Documentation should come from an appropriate licensed professional who is knowledgeable about the field of the disability. Professionals qualified to administer diagnostic evaluations include the following:
    1. licensed psychologists, neuropsychologists and/or psychiatrists for psychological disabilities  
    2. licensed medical providers for medical and/or physical disabilities  
    3. either licensed psychologists or licensed medical providers for specific learning disabilities 
  3. Documentation should provide a detailed assessment that gives clear evidence of a disability that conforms to the federal disability definition based on standardized tests and other evaluative methods deemed appropriate by the evaluator.   
  4. Documentation should provide a clinical summary of the testing results that is precise and clearly states the following:
    1. the formal diagnosis (must meet DSM criteria for psychological diagnosis/es)
    2. specific deficit areas due to diagnosis/es
    3. current limitations to major life activities resulting from these deficits
    4. provide a clear sense of the severity, frequency and pervasiveness of the condition(s)
    5. suggestions for accommodations for the disability and the rationale for the accommodations 
    6. provide pertinent test scores and observational data 
    7. If requesting an emotional support animal (ESA) or a medical single room, the provider must identify the disability related need for the specific accommodation, and explain how it alleviates one or more of the identified substantially-limiting major life activities (thereby reducing the identified symptoms or effects of this individual’s existing disability). Please also identify what type of support animal is being requested. 
  5. All documentation must be no more than 3 years old, and must be signed, dated and typed on official letterhead. Please email to the Office%20of%20Disability%20Services.

The Office of Disability Services will determine whether or not documentation submitted is sufficient to move forward with the accommodations process; we will explain what additional information is needed if documentation is deemed insufficient.  

Medical Withdrawal

Duquesne University students may apply for a medical withdrawal due to extreme illness, serious injury, or extended hospitalization. Because a medical withdrawal affects academic progress, students are encouraged to consider other options that might enable them to remain enrolled (such as "I" or "incomplete" grades that would enable them to complete coursework after the end of the semester). Students should consult their academic advisor, the Office of Student Financial Aid, the Office of International Programs and other offices as appropriate.

Medical withdrawals constitute complete withdrawals and result in final grades of "W" in all courses on the transcript for the semester in question. The University does not grant partial medical withdrawals (i.e., requests to withdraw from some courses but not others). The only exception is if the student has already completed one or more accelerated (i.e., 8-week) courses, in which case the grades earned in all such courses remain on the student's transcript and the associated costs are included when calculating the student's account balance; the medical withdrawal results in final grades of "W" for all other courses on the transcript.

Withdrawal

Except in extraordinary circumstances, students must submit a written request for a medical withdrawal to their academic advisor no later than the last day of classes for the semester to which the withdrawal would apply. The university does not grant withdrawals for prior semesters.

The school or college will then submit to the Registrar (a) either a Notice of Complete Withdrawal form (withdrawing the student from all courses) or a Request for Student Schedule Change form (withdrawing the student from courses still in progress when one or more accelerated courses has already been graded) and (b) authorization from the student to process the withdrawal. This authorization may be either in hard copy with the student's signature or in the form of an email sent from the student's Duquesne University email account.

Students are considered to be enrolled unless and until they submit written notification of their withdrawal. The withdrawal is effective on the date when notification is received, which constitutes the student's last day of attendance.