Laboratory Policies

The policy of the university and the department prohibits food and drink in all laboratories. Microwave ovens in labs are for lab materials only. In addition, you may not use the waste containers in the labs for disposing of food/drink containers. Your students must dispose of these items OUTSIDE of the lab BEFORE they enter the lab.

Checking Into Lab

Teaching assistants are responsible for checking students into lab. A class list of your students is placed in your mailbox as soon as the Chemistry Office receives it. In the larger classes (general, organic and quant), several students typically drop or add courses or change lab sections during the first week of class. To avoid having to check students into and out of one drawer and then into another drawer, teaching assistants should not check any student into lab unless they are actually registered (e.g., on the class list). Students who are trying to get into your lab section must register first and then check into lab.

Making Up a Lab

The following describes the policy and procedures by which students in chemistry lab courses may make up laboratories if the course instructor of record wishes to allow. Instructors and teaching assistants should urge their students to complete the lab during the assigned week and state that only extraordinary circumstances (as you judge each case) will merit permission to make up a lab.

Labs may only be made up during the week for which the experiment was assigned and the week immediately following it. Make-up labs require extra time and effort by the laboratory support and stockroom staff members. Departmental staff members will leave all chemicals and equipment in the laboratory and will allow the checkout of equipment from the stockroom for one extra week to accommodate make-up labs.

Using the Experiment Make-up Form (pdf) (also available from the stockroom), the student must request a make-up lab by gaining permission from the instructor of record. The student should go to the make-up lab and ask the TA for permission to carry out the experiment. The TA should fill out the rest of the form and turn it in to the stockroom window at the end of the lab. This ensures that we have a record of the extent of these requests.

Checking Out of Lab

Students must check out with their TA and return the drawer key to the stockroom during the last week of the semester. Failure to check out by the end of final exam week results in fees to the student of $20.00 per lock to change the locks, $25.00 to check out of the lab drawer, plus any stockroom charges incurred during the semester. See the Chemistry Department Policy for Stockroom Charges .

Borrowing Equipment

Students must have a picture ID (UCard, drivers license, etc.) to check out anything from the stockroom. If any items are missing or damaged in any way, the student is held accountable and charges are deducted from his/her UCard or billed to the student's account.

Lab Stockroom Charges

Any and all charges must be paid at the time they are incurred. If adequate funds are not available on a "UCard" or "CampusCash" card, participation in laboratory is suspended until the debt is settled. Common charges are as follows:

• $8.00 - Goggle purchase. Only approved goggles may be used.
• $1.00 - Goggle rental (when purchased goggles are forgotten)*
• $1.00 - Drawer unlock and lock-up (when lab key(s) are forgotten)
• $0.75 - Booties
• Market price - Glassware, equipment, computer, instrument damage
• $20.00/key - Failure to return key(s)
• $25.00/drawer - Failure to check out completely by deadline

*Goggle rental is free for the first week of lab (not counting check-in)

Students enrolled in a chemistry laboratory course at UMD should maintain a minimum of $25.00 on their UCards to cover check-in and laboratory expenses. If the UCard does not have sufficient funds for a necessary expenditure, the student must leave the laboratory and add sufficient funds to cover the cost