General Attendance Policies
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Regular class attendance is required of every student in the College
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You may not miss announced tests or project dates without documentation to satisfy the faculty member that a valid emergency validated the absence.
Number of Unexcused Absences Allowed
- One-Cut status: Freshmen and students who are classified in an Activities Ineligible category are allowed one unexcused absence per class.
- Upper-Classman status: Second semester freshmen who achieve at least Dean’s List the first semester and current students (except ones in a touring group that semester) may take one week of unexcused absences.
- Alternate Attendance status: Students who are married or over 23 years old and earn a GPA of 2.0 or higher for the prior semester may take two weeks of unexcused absences without penalty (other than the normal consequence for missing a class), unless they are Activities Ineligible. Guests and graduate students are also in this category. In some cases, students may need to secure an excuse form to validate to a teacher that an absence was necessary or unavoidable [AC 5/09].
- Note: Any student, regardless of the classification, whose unexcused and excused absences equal more than 20 percent of the class hours will not be granted credit for the course, except by special permission from the Academic Committee.
The penalties for taking more than the cuts allowed your status are as follows:
- First overcut class: Semester grade lowered one full letter (e.g., a B+ becomes a C+). A teacher-imposed penalty may replace the grade-lowered penalty (e.g., an alternative project or report).
- Second overcut class: Dropped from the class (whether or not the teacher imposed an alternative penalty for the first overcut class).
Unintentional first hour cut: Freshman who do not have any excessive number of demerits and who have unintentionally missed first hour class will be allowed to take a 25-demerit penalty in place of a lowered grade--one time only--for a second unexcused absence from first hour class. The next cut will still result in being dropped from the course.
- Students who are absent from more than twenty percent of the scheduled class hours, including both excused and unexcused absences in any given course, will not be granted credit for the course, except by special permission from the Academic Committee.
- Tardiness is arriving after the beginning of a class period but within the first 15 minutes of the class.
- Three tardies equals one unexcused absence. Permanent tardies due to work or other conflicts are not permitted.
- To be excused from a tardy, a student must receive written authorization from the person responsible for the tardy and give it to the one in charge of the class for which the student is tardy.
Reminders
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You are responsible to keep track of your own attendance records.
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Whether present or not, you are held responsible for all assignments and classroom lectures. Although an instructor may inform you if and when your record is endangered by excessive absences, you are responsible to be aware of that record and take appropriate action.