Attendance Policy for College Students

At Georgia Southern University, there is a very strict attendance policy. The attendance policy is so particularly strict, a student cannot even miss out on the first session of their class to participate in their own wedding. If they do miss out on their first session, they have to actually drop the entire course. There are a few excused absences for the first session of class, which includes illness, military reasons, or death of an immediate family member. However, even when these situations arise, the student must come back to the classroom with a sick note from their doctor, a military summons, or a copy of the obituary to prove there was, in fact, a death within the family.

The university does not allow students to miss out on the classes for a job interview either. Students continue to search long and hard for jobs or even internships during the spring months and some may end up with job interviews that take place during class time. Should students miss out on class for a job interview? This is a question that many people find themselves asking. Or, since students are attending these universities to put themselves in a position to find employment, should they just forgo the interview and go to class instead?

The professor of physics for the California State University at Fresno, Frederick Ringwald, says that making student choose between a job and college classes is simply unreasonable. He believes that a job interview is a good enough reason to miss out on classes, even midterms.

Ringwald says, “I put the provision for job interviews onto my syllabus, because one of the main benefits of taking my classes is that students can learn things that enable them to get jobs. It’s only fair not to penalize students if they have job interviews.”

Ringwald has been a teacher for thirteen years and during those years, not one student has ever missed class because they had a job interview. However, Robert Dean, the associate professor of electrical and computer engineering for Auburn University, located in Alabama, says that has not been the case for him. Deans says that in his syllabi, job interviews are excused absences for the students. Dean says that because his one course is primarily made up of students who are seniors or graduates, several students have missed classes for job interviews.

A student at Virginia Tech, Allison Hoyt, says that she has been on about 40 different job interviews but tries to schedule them during breaks or between classes instead of during classes. Hoyt says that students should let their professors know ahead of time that they are on a hunt for jobs which may lead them to miss some class. Hoyt says, “Professors appreciate knowing this, especially since some classes have students ranging from freshmen to seniors—where freshmen don’t typically interview, but seniors are looking for permanent employment.”