STUDENT ABSENCES
Effective: August 15, 2024
Purpose: To outline the responsibilities and effects of student absences.
Scope: This policy applies to all University students campus wide.
Responsible Office: Academic Affairs
Policy Statement: When a student has been absent or desires to be absent from class for any reason, it is the student’s responsibility to consult with the instructor concerning the reason for the absence. The instructor, in turn, has the prerogative of requiring the student to make up, in some appropriate and reasonable way, the work missed during the absence. Faculty members who take students on school-sponsored trips should attempt to plan the trip to minimize the number of classes which students must miss.
Effect on Grade
Regular class attendance is crucial to the development of a student's knowledge and skills. For online classes, “attendance” will be defined by the course instructor. If excessive absences (lack of attendance) impair the development of such knowledge and skills, or diminish a student's role or cumulative achievement in a class, the instructor has the right to reflect this judgment in the student's grades. An instructor who reserves the right to make such a judgment must specify in the course syllabus the manner in which absences will affect grades.
Academic Appeals for Absences
Any student who feels they has been dealt with unfairly concerning absences or misinformed by a faculty member regarding the faculty member's absence policy or the department's mediation procedures, has a valid reason for academic appeal through established procedures.
Definitions: All words and phrases shall be interpreted utilizing their plain meanings unless otherwise defined in another University or Board of Regents policy or by statute or regulation.
Procedures: All procedures linked and related to the policies above shall have the full force and effect of policy if said procedures have first been properly approved by the University’s administrator in charge of Academic Affairs.
[Academic Affairs procedures - coming soon]
Related Policy Information: 4.69 – Syllabi; 4.78 – Academic Appeals;