Leave of Absence

Students who would like to apply for a Leave of Absence should apply here: https://advising.sps.columbia.edu/register/leave_of_absence.

1. The form requires Single Sign-On (SSO) and is prepopulated with the student's name, UNI, program of study, and email address.
2. The student selects a type of Leave from the following:
   1. Voluntary Leave
   2. Medical Leave
   3. Military Leave
3. If the student selects Voluntary Leave, a new drop-down menu appears requiring the student to choose a specific reason for the leave from a predefined list. One of the choices ("Employment - other") requires further details in the form of notes.
4. The form contains several additional required questions about the student's status as well as the student's last day of classes and planned return term.
5. Each of the leave types requires the user to upload further documentation as outlined below:
   1. Voluntary leaves: A letter explaining your circumstances and detailing the reason for the leave.
   2. Medical leaves for physical or psychological reasons: A letter from a health-care provider.
   3. Military leaves: A copy of your military orders
6. Upon completion of the form, a confirmation page is displayed on the screen and sent to the student by email. The email is also sent to spsadvising@columbia.edu.
7. The administrator notifies the student's advisor about the request.
8. The advisor completes the Advisor Response section of the form with a decision.
9. If the Leave of Absence request is for medical reasons:
   1. The wellness team is notified of the request.
   2. The wellness team representative completes the Wellness Response section of the form. with a decision.
10. If the request is approved by the student's advisor and (if necessary) the Wellness Team, the administrator sends the request information to a representative of the student's program.
11. The program representative notifies the administrator of his/her decision.
12. The administrator enters the program representative's decision in the Program Representative Response section of the form.
13. If the Leave of Absence has been approved, the administrator completes the checklist items in the Internal Processing section of the form as they become complete.
14. If the Leave of Absence has been approved by all relevant stakeholders, the status has been set to "Fully executed," and "Suppress notifications to student" has been set to "no," an email will be sent to the student (with spsadvising@columbia.edu CCed) saying that the request has been fully executed and specifying their refund amount.