Minimum Class Attendance Policy
- Students are required to attend class regularly and in a punctual manner, whether their classes are held in-person or online. Failure to do so may result in a failing grade in the course.
- “Regular” attendance is defined as attending at least 80% of the classes. Instructors may establish higher expectations. All absences, including excused absences, count against the 80% attendance requirement or whatever is established by the instructor.”
- Some absences are “excused absences.” Excused absences include COVID-related situations (e.g., COVID symptoms, exposure to the virus, quarantine, confirmed infection), other personal/family illness, personal/family emergency, pregnancy, disability, and absences provided for religious observance under law school’s policy.
- Excused absences for pregnancy or disability should be approved by Accessibility and Resource Services and/or the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.
- Instructors have the discretion to approve other requested absences. These may include, for example, unavoidable scheduling conflict with for-credit law school activities and unavoidable job interview conflicts.
- Anyone who is experiencing any symptom(s) indicated on the University’s screening checklist (COVID-19 screening checklist) must not attend in-person classes, which includes anyone who has been exposed to the virus within the recent past.
- If a student accumulates enough excused absences so that the student cannot meet the course attendance requirement, the student must “make up” those absences.
- “Making up” an excused absence requires completing course work as determined by each instructor so that the “excused absence” converts to “attended class.”
- In addition to the minimum attendance required to receive credit for the course, instructors are permitted to take poor attendance into account for grading purposes and must provide notice of such policies on the course syllabus. It is the student’s responsibility to review each course syllabus and communicate in a timely manner with instructors regarding any reasonably anticipated absence.
- Instructors are required to ensure that students meet the regular attendance requirement by doing the following:
- Instructors must explain their attendance requirements and expectations in their syllabi and encourage students to ask questions.
- Instructors must determine ways students can make up excused absences so that they can essentially convert an absence to “attending.”
- Instructors must provide reasonable alternatives that permit students to meet course objectives and learning outcomes.
- Instructors teaching experiential, RWE, and/or RRWA courses may seek an exemption from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from the requirement that they provide opportunities for their students to make up excused absences. The Associate Dean shall grant an exemption only if it would not be possible to make up the absence without fundamentally altering the essential nature of the course. In such courses, students with excused absences who exceed the allowable number of absences will be permitted to drop the course.
- To monitor the attendance requirement in their courses, instructors must take attendance for every class meeting.
- The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs will give guidance to instructors on how to take attendance in their courses, including online courses. Instructors must state their method for taking attendance in their syllabi.
- If an instructor determines that a student has violated the attendance policy, the instructor should notify the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. If the instructor determines that a student’s absences exceed the permitted level, the student will not be permitted to complete the work for the course and will receive a failing grade in the course, unless otherwise determined by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The Associate Dean may provide limited waivers for unexcused absences in appropriate situations.
Religious Observance
Students are authorized up to two excused absences each academic year for religious observances required by their faith. Students who wish to request more than two excused absences in an academic year for religious observances required by their faith will need to contact their course instructors and request the additional absence, which will only be granted with the course instructor’s permission. Primary holy days for religious observance are noted on the University Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s cultural holiday calendar.
Students are responsible for providing a written notice for an excused absence for a religious observance two weeks in-advance of the date requested or as soon as possible if the date occurs within the first two weeks of the semester. This policy also applies to students who have an excused absence for a religious observance during the summer.
Students must be given the opportunity to make up tests and other work missed due to an excused absence for a religious observance. Make up tests may entail an alternative examination, or other accommodation which allows the student not to be penalized for an excused absence for a religious observance.
If students know in advance that they must miss one or more final examinations because of religious observance, they should notify in writing the Assistant Dean for Student Development no later than the last day to submit exam rescheduling forms. If a conflict arises after this deadline, the students should notify Assistant Dean for Student Development as soon as they become aware of the conflict. The School of Law may require documentation of a student’s religious observance.