Attendance Policy

The English Department has a rather strict attendance policy, based on the fact that our classes are not lecture-based, but involving a large amount of discussion and in-class writing. A student missing a significant portion of class time will not be experiencing the course in its completion. The English Department has approved an attendance policy for all composition classes. Instructors must support this policy. The most practical way to do this is to treat the class as a workshop in which students are responsible for at least one piece of writing for each class session; (this will put the emphasis on work missed rather on a lack of attendance). In-class writing assignments might take any of the following forms: journal entry, quiz, peer review response to prompt either before or after in-class discussion/ activity, evaluation, written practice of a required rhetorical/research/ grammatical concept.

Please include the following statement on your course syllabus (as applicable to your class, in terms of whether it meets two or three times per week):
• For classes meeting TWICE a week:
College English I is a writing workshop, which means that the work we do in class is an essential component of the course. This includes in-class writing assignments, quizzes, note-taking, peer review, and group work. Students with more than 4 absences, either excused or unexcused, may have failed to complete a substantial number of these writing assignments, and may therefore be unable to pass College English I, unless there is an exceptional situation (see below).
• For classes meeting THREE TIMES a week:
College English I is a writing workshop, which means that the work we do in class is an essential component of the course. This includes in-class writing assignments, quizzes, note-taking, peer review, and group work. Students with more than 6 absences, either excused or unexcused, may have failed to complete a substantial number of these writing assignments, and may therefore be unable to pass College English I, unless there is an exceptional situation (see below).
• For 0160 or 0180 classes, which meet FOUR TIMES a week:
College English I is a writing workshop, which means that the work we do in class is an essential component of the course. This includes in-class writing assignments, quizzes, note-taking, peer review, and group work. Students with more than 8 absences, either excused or unexcused, may have failed to complete a substantial number of these writing assignments, and may therefore be unable to pass College English I, unless there is an exceptional situation (see below).

Note: This policy does not mean that faculty members “must” fail a student who exceeds this number of absences. The policy is meant to serve as a guideline; if students are doing in class writing and other work, excessive absences will have hurt their class performance, and there should be a warning about the number of absences as outlined above in the syllabus. However, faculty members should use their own judgment about applying it in specific situations.

An “excused” absence is one documented by either the Athletic Department or, only in the case of students with three absences or more in a row, the Dean of Students and Community Development.  Instructors should not accept doctor’s notes as proof of excused absences. Please advise freshmen with significant medical or family problems to speak with their mentor and/or someone in the Dean of Students and Community Development’s office, x9076, to obtain assistance and official excuses for these absences.

Occasionally a student will have a legitimate reason for being absent more than six times (or four or eight, as listed above, depending on the number of class meetings)—usually medical, sometimes athletic. If you are considering passing anyone else who has more than 6 (or 4 or 8, depending on the number of class meetings) absences, you must speak to the Director of First Year Writing or, in the case of 1201-0160 or 1201-0180, the Director of Basic Skills.