Retroactive Withdrawal Petition Instructor Information

Thank you for contacting the CLAS Academic Standards Committee.  This information is for instructors who have been contacted by a student and asked to provide a statement for the student’s retroactive withdrawal petition. 

In the event of circumstances that preclude a student from successfully completing a class, it is the student’s responsibility to submit a withdrawal request before the end of the semester. It is against normal college policy to allow a student to withdraw from a course after the completion of the semester for which grades are already posted. 

However, in the event of a documented extenuating circumstance that prevented a student with a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) major from withdrawing, a petition for a Retroactive Withdrawal may be submitted to the CLAS Academic Standards Committee.  

Instructor input is a required part of the petition, and you are most likely reading this because a student reached out to you to request your assistance.  The Academic Standards Committee takes the information you provide into consideration when reviewing the petition.  Instructor input includes the following: 

  • Verifying that the student either never attended or when they stopped attending the class 

  • Reason(s) the student earned the grades they did at the time 

  • Optional: explanation of whether or not you support the withdrawal petition.  This is not required but does help the committee in its deliberation to make a decision. 

Instructors can submit their statements directly to the committee at clas.academic.standards@ucdenver.edu.