Attendance Policy

• AUW expects students to regularly attend all class meetings. However, instructors may have specific attendance requirements for individual courses, so students are expected to review their syllabus and acquaint themselves with and meet all course requirements.

   

   Definitions

  • Attendance is defined as physical attendance or participation in an academically related activity such as submission of an assignment, an examination, participation in a study group or an online discussion, etc. Instructors who do not take attendance may utilize key assessment points (e.g. projects, papers, midterm exams, and discussions) as benchmarks for participation.

  • Excused Absence is defined as an absence approved or authorized by AUW.
  • Unexcused Absence is defined as any absence not approved or authorized by AUW.

   

  Excused Absences

  • Death in the immediate family (parent or siblings), for up to one week.

  • Hospitalization for serious illness or medical problem/disability, for up to two weeks (for longer illnesses, a medical leave for the term may be granted, the procedures for which can be found in the Voluntary Withdrawal Policy).

  • Attending an AUW sponsored event or representing AUW at a meeting or event, for up to one week.

   

  In these cases, students will have the opportunity to make up academic work that is missed and will be given an excused absence from their physical education classes.

   

  Notification will be sent to the Academic Registrar who will then send the notice to the relevant faculty and keep a record of the excused absence.

   

  Medical leaves or extended absences from physical education will be granted by the Dean of Faculty and go to the Academic Registrar who will inform the relevant faculty.

   

  Unexcused Absences

  • Family events (e.g., weddings).
  • Attending to family problems, illnesses of family members.

  • Attending a conference, event, or other outside activity that is not authorized by AUW, even if the organizer awards the student the funds to attend.

   

  A student may still choose to attend and/or participate in these outside activities, but will need to accept the consequences of missing whatever academic work occurs during their absence. In these cases, there will be no possibility to make up academic or physical education class work.

   

  Additionally, students who have a large number of unexcused absences will be subject to Academic Actions such as an Academic Alert. For more information on Academic Actions, please refer to the Academic Actions Policy. If a student has a large number of unexcused absences in several courses, the student’s status will be reviewed by the Dean of Students and the Dean of Faculty/Director of Access Academy, and the student may be subject to suspension or expulsion.

   

  First Day Attendance

  Students are expected to attend the first day of class of a semester. If a student is not present at the first class, and there are students waiting to be added to the course, the instructor may drop the student from the course for non-attendance. The student who is dropped would then have to add a course that has space once she returns to campus. If the student has an extraordinary reason for not being able to get back to campus by the first day of classes, she should email her instructors and ask them not to drop her. However, instructors have the right to deny or grant this request at their own discretion.