Class Attendance
Each faculty member is responsible for establishing a clear policy on class attendance for each course, which should be included in the course syllabus.
The name of any student who has been excessively absent, or who seems to not be functioning in class, should be reported to the Office of Student Success and Transition or through the Performance Check System. The student’s attendance and performance in other courses and labor positions will be checked, the instructor and the student’s advisor will be informed of the circumstances, and an appropriate intervention strategy will be developed. If a student is confined by illness or called away for family emergency, the Student Life Office informs the student's teachers and labor supervisor.
If a student is going to miss class due to participation in a College-sponsored trip, it is the student’s responsibility to confer with each instructor about the impending absence and, within the instructor’s attendance policy, to arrange to complete any course work missed. If the absence is likely to have a significantly adverse effect on course performance, the instructor is free to decide if the student should not be released from class.
First class day attendance
Instructors may request that students who do not attend the first class session are dropped from the course.1 Students who add a course after the first day of class must attend the next class session after their enrollment or they may be dropped. Instructors should submit the request to drop a student by sending an email to Registrar@berea.edu.
As always, the student's course schedule is the student's responsibility. Therefore, students must not assume that they will automatically be dropped from a course if they are absent for a class period. Students who do not attend a class in which they are registered will receive a failing grade for that class if they do not withdraw following College policies and procedures.
Students should contact their instructors directly if they are going to miss a class session to request that they not be dropped from the course. How any absence is handled is at the discretion of the individual instructor and it is the student's responsibility to be aware of each course's attendance policy as outlined in the course syllabus.
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1Instructors are encouraged to exercise discretion with the use of this policy and primarily for courses that are full and have a waiting list. If this policy is going to be invoked, it is preferred that it be used immediately following the first day of class. This allows dropped students the possibility of finding an alternative course during the add/drop period.