Excellent attendance is essential to professionalism. It’s a sign of respect and dependability. It shows professors and employers that we value their time, respect their work, and prioritize the opportunity to learn and grow. It makes sense that NSU would adopt a policy that forces students to get it together and actually show up for class, but it isn’t common knowledge. Most students assume that the only consequences for missing class are academic.
Professors usually set up their own attendance policies: some reward attendance through participation points, some deduct points or even fail students for poor attendance and others assign quizzes to pressure students not only to show up, but to also show up prepared. Institutional policies that drop students from courses for poor attendance are an unexpected punishment.
According to the non-attendance drop policy, students who miss a class on the first week of the semester or term, even if the student misses the first Friday class of a course that meets on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, are automatically dropped from the course. Fortunately, if the student has a reasonable excuse, he or she can discuss the absence with the professor and possibly get reenrolled in the course. However, this policy is not common knowledge and several students, myself included, were caught off guard when we received an email notification that we were dropped from a course for our absence.
The non-attendance drop policy can be found in a brief couple sentences in the Student Enrollment Agreement. Let’s be real: no one ever actually reads the terms and conditions to anything before clicking “I agree.” Reading the Student Enrollment Agreement that pops up right before the registration portal opens while students are rushing to get into their top course selections on a Monday morning at 12:01 a.m. is certainly not an exception. It’s not surprising that only a few students know about it, but it’s a little disappointing that NSU administrators aren’t working harder to make sure important information about policies that could possibly negatively affect its students is common knowledge.
Granted, students rarely miss class on the first week unless there are extenuating circumstances. It’s the week when students get to meet their classmates, go over any questions they may have on the syllabus and learn introductory course material. It’s the week when students still have the opportunity to readjust their schedule and determine if every course works best for their schedule. However, situations do happen where attendance becomes impossible. Tires pop. Flights delay. Illnesses emerge. Family emergencies occur. Alarm clocks fail us. Life happens.
In my particular case, I went out of town for a conference. I informed my professor well in advance that I would be missing the first class and visited her during her office hours before my trip to go over the course material, and I still received an email from the Office of the Registrar a week later that I was dropped from the course. Fortunately, I was brought back into the course, but I was caught off-guard.
The worst part was finding a member of NSU administration who could answer my questions about the policy. I spent two hours straight getting bounced back and forth from office to office and no one could answer my questions. The Office of the Registrar, the office that informed me via email that I was dropped from the course, was not only incredibly difficult to get ahold of, but also couldn’t even answer my very basic questions — what is the policy and when did it start — and instead referred me to someone else without even giving me the contact information.
Imagine if a student were permanently dropped from a course but relied on those credits to qualify for a scholarship or program that requires full-time student status. Imagine if a senior were dropped from a mandatory course that fulfilled a major requirement and this drop, in turn, postponed his or her graduation date. Considering the level of difficulty I faced just to get two basic questions answered, students trying to have their problem solved or seeking closure will likely face the same challenge.
Communication is key, especially when it comes to policies that directly affect students. NSU administration should make it their goal to warn students effectively of important policies and answer any questions students might have to avoid breaking the rules. There are several institutional policies and resources listed in the back of every course syllabus and the non-attendance drop policy should really be one of them. Or, NSU administration could send out an email with a reminder of the rules laid out in the Student Enrollment Agreement before the term begins. Either way, it’s only fair that students receive an adequate warning of every possible consequence before they stay home from class.
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