Class Attendance Policy and Procedures

Purpose

Fisk University students are expected to maintain regular and successive attendance in all the lecture, laboratory, and seminar courses for which they have registered and are enrolled during a semester. Class attendance is an essential part of the student’s intellectual development, success, retention and timely graduation.

In addition, Title IV federal guidelines mandate that institutions receiving federal aid verify student class attendance to ensure that all awarded federal aid monies are used for educational purposes. It is the policy at Fisk University that faculty members verify and report student class attendance in CAMS before the University Census Date listed in the Academic Calendar. This reporting allows the University to identify students who: (1) are enrolled in classes but are not attending; (2) have officially or unofficially withdrawn from the University; (3) are attending classes for which they are not registered; and/or students who are erroneously listed classes for which they did not register.

Students listed in any of the four categories will be contacted and adjustments will be made to financial aid packages and funds returned to the federal government, as necessary. Failure to report accurate data jeopardizes institutional eligibility for federal financial aid and veteran services.

Policy Statement

In each course, students who miss more than ten percent of the scheduled class meetings (including labs) due to unexcused absences will be in danger of failing the course. For a class that meets three times per week, the number of unexcused absences is five class sessions; for a class that meets twice a week, three class sessions; and for a class that meets once per week, two class sessions. More strenuous requirements may be applicable, as stated by individual instructors, in their respective course syllabi. It is the student’s responsibility to understand each Instructor’s requirements. The University administration, consistent with this policy, does not generally issue excuses from class.

Definition of Terms: (1) Attendance is defined in this policy statement as the physical presence of the student in the classroom for the entire scheduled class time.

Tardiness can be considered an unexcused absence. (2) Unexcused Absences are all absences that have not been approved by a certified physician/nurse, the Instructor in charge of the course, and/or the Provost or his/her designee.

Applicability

Individual faculty members can choose to make the policy more rigorous but in no case should they be more lenient than the University policy stated above. Occasionally, students may miss class due to an emergency (health, accident, etc.) or, other compelling circumstances beyond their control. Such students must justify, with appropriate documentation, unplanned absences no later than 48 hours upon return to the campus. In addition, there are occasions when students may be absent from campus in connection with sanctioned University activities such as athletic competitions, academic competitions, concerts or conference presentations. In such cases, students are required to notify their faculty Instructor prior to the scheduled class that they will miss and make up for work missed. In all cases, the Provost may, at his/her discretion, issue a memorandum to faculty members to permit students to make up missed work. In such cases, instructors can assign reasonable and relevant compensatory work for excused absences at a time mutually convenient to both the student and the Instructor. Such memoranda, however, do not constitute excuses from class and students remain bound at all time by the absolute maximum of ten percent (10%) absence rate in any particular class.

Exception

Exceptions to the ten percent (10%) absence rate policy may only be made by the Provost in consultation with the course Instructor. Exceptions may only be considered when the student is performing at a high level of competence in the course, and when the reasons for excessive absences (e.g., hospitalization, family emergency, etc.) are such that it would clearly not have been possible for the student to attend the required ninety percent (90%) of class meetings.

Procedure

The following procedure should be used for each course

• The course attendance policy should be clearly stated in all course syllabi;
• Instructors should distribute course syllabi to students during the first week of the semester;
• Instructors should provide a clear explanation of their attendance policy during the first week of the semester. This includes an explanation of the role that attendance plays in the calculation of final grades and the extent to which work missed due to non-attendance can be made up;
• Attendance is to be verified for each class session.