Policy: B-19
Date Effective: January 19, 1990
Amended: May 12, 1994

UNIVERSITY ATTENDANCE POLICY

1. Students are expected to be present for all class meetings of the course for which they are enrolled. If a student has an excusable absence, the faculty member should give the student an opportunity to make up the work. The manner in which make-up work is administered is left to the professional discretion of the individual faculty member.

2. Each faculty member will be responsible for determining the validity of the reason for an absence. Among those absences which are considered to be excusable are:
a. participation in an authorized University activity;
b. illness;
c. death in a student's immediate family; and
d. obligation of students at legal proceedings in fulfilling responsibility as a citizen.

3. A record of excused and unexcused absences should be maintained by a faculty member for reference. If a faculty member should question the acceptability of an individual's excuse, the Dean of students should be contacted for assistance and verification.

4. Faculty should have a conference with any student with excessive unexcused absences. Unexcused absences are generally classified as excessive when they reach approximately 6% of the total scheduled class meetings for the term.

A report of this conference should be forwarded to the Dean of Students.

5. If a student continues to be absent from class after the conference, the faculty member should forward the name of the student to the Dean of Students. The Dean will notify the student of the seriousness of the matter and will schedule a mandatory conference.

6. Faculty members may recommend to the appropriate college dean that a student be dropped from a course when unexcused absences reach approximately 20% of the total scheduled class meetings for the term. It is imperative in such cases that the above procedures have been closely followed.