Proposal for Change in the Class Attendance/Grading Policy
DATE:
April 16, 1996
Please consider the following rationale in relation to the proposed
changes in the Class Attendance/Grading policy as recorded on page 83 of
the Governance Manual.
Class Attendance/Grading Policy
[Governance Manual, P. 83]
Current Policy
Students are expected to attend all of their classes and must accept full
responsibility for a decision not to attend a class unless official
authorization to miss has been received by the instructor teaching the
course.
1. Authorized absences are those granted because of:
a. student illness
b. death in the family
c. participation in outside-of-the-classroom educational activities
d. participation in University-sponsored activities or programs
e. religious holidays
2. Officially authorized absences can only be obtained from the
Registrar's Office. Other than in the case of illness or death in the
family, no authorization to miss class will be given to a student after
he/she has already missed the class.
3. Arrangements to make up a missed class must be made before the
fact rather than after.
4. Each instructor will establish his/her own grading policy based on
classroom participation, homework, unannounced quizzes, etc., a written
copy of said policy to be distributed at the beginning of the course.
5. Responsibility for materials presented in, assignments made for,
and tests/quizzes given in regularly schedled classes lies solely with
the student. However, a student may make up missed work at the
discretion of the instructor. If a student misses class for an
officially authorized reason, then he/she is entitled to make up the
missed work but only at the convenience of the instructor.
6. Any student who has not contacted his/her professor by the end of
the second class meeting (for classes meeting two or three times per
week) or previous to the beginning of the second class meeting (for
classes meeting only once a week) may be removed from a class roll by the
instructor.
7. The registrar's office must be informed of this action no later
than the third class meeting.
Proposed Changes
--Delete the opening sentence and items 1, 2, and 3. Insert the
following instead:
1. Subject to the discretion of individual instructors and based
on compelling reasons provided by the students, students will not be
excused from any more than three class meetings per semester.
--Paragraph 4--Change(s) noted in bold:
2. Each instructor will establish his/her own grading policy
based on classroom participation, homework, unannounced quizzes, etc., a
written copy of said policy to be distributed at the beginning of the
course.
--Paragraph 5--Change(s) noted in bold:
3. Responsibility for materials presented in, assignments made
for, and tests/quizzes given in regularly scheduled classes lies solely
with the student. However, a student may make up missed work at the
discretion of the instructor. If a student misses class for a reason
authorized by the instructor, then he/she is entitled to make up the
missed work but only at the convenience of the instructor.
--Paragraph 6--Change(s) noted in bold:
4. Any student who has not contacted his/her professor by the
end of the second class meeting (for classes meeting two or three times
per week) or previous to the beginning of the second class meeting (for
classes meeting only once a week) must be removed from a class
roll by the instructor. The instructor must inform Registrar's Office
of this action no later than the end of the first week of classes.
--Paragraph 7--Deleted
Proposed Policy After Above Changes:
1. Subject to the discretion of individual instructors and based on
compelling reasons provided by the students, students will not be excused
from any more than three class meetings per semester.
2. Each instructor will establish his/her own grading policy based on
classroom participation, homework, unannounced quizzes, etc., a written
copy of said policy to be distributed at the beginning of the course.
3. Responsibility for materials presented in, assignments made for, and
tests/quizzes given in regularly scheduled classes lies solely with the
student. However, a student may make up missed work at the discretion of
the instructor. If a student misses class for a reason authorized by the
instructor, then he/she is entitled to make up the missed work but only
at the convenience of the instructor.
4. Any student who has not contacted his/her professor by the end of the
second class meeting (for classes meeting two or three times per week) or
previous to the beginning of the second class meeting (for classes
meeting only once a week) must be removed from a class roll by the
instructor. The instructor must inform Registrar's Office of this action
no later than the end of the first week of classes. Rationale
1. Currently, there is no official acceptable maximum number of class
sessions that a student may miss without any penalty.
2. An approved authorized absence issued by the Registrar's Office allows
students to miss any number of class sessions and requires the
instructors to allow students to make up the work for the classes missed.
Increasingly, students are abusing the system. For example, during the
month of March 1996 alone, the Registrar's Office has issued over 1035
authorized absences.
3. It seems most appropriate to let the instructor to excuse the absences
and determine whether the missing class work can be made up by the
student.
4. The proposed policy would allow a student to be absent for a maximum
of three class meetings for each course. Any additional absences will be
at the discretion of the instructor.
5. The instructor of each course is well in the position to determine
whether the work for classes missed can be made up by the student.
6. The proposed policy obligates the student to take on more
responsibility and to attend classes/complete work as required.
I will be happy to further explore the rationale for the above proposal
in the Senate. Thank you for your consideration.