Class Attendance
Students must attend regularly all lecture and laboratory periods. An education is more than just acquiring information. Through regular class attendance students gain clearer insight into complex issues through interaction with professors and other students.

Considering regular class attendance, along with grade standards, such an important requirement of enrollment, the College does not allow any "cuts" by students, nor does it allow instructors to give "walks" or dismiss classes early, except after a major examination or laboratory exercise.

Instructors keep an accurate record of each student's attendance and do not allow students who do not attend regularly to slow the pace of the class. However, instructors may provide an opportunity for a student who presents a reasonable excuse for an absence to make up missed work. A student who does not offer a satisfactory explanation for an absence will have that absence classified as unexcused and earn an F for any test, assignment, or laboratory work given or due during that absence; the student will not be allowed to make up work that was missed.

Whenever a student's absences reach 8.33 percent of the contact hours of the course for unexcused reasons or reasons unknown to the instructor, the instructor may, at his/her discretion, withdraw the student. For example, the number of contact hours in a fall or spring term course equals the number of weekly classroom and laboratory hours in the course description multiplied by 16. Therefore, professors may withdraw students who accumulate four hours absence in classes meeting three hours per week or eight hours absence in classes meeting six hours per week. Three unexcused tardies count as one unexcused absence.

An instructor also has authority to drop a student when the instructor believes the student has accumulated so many absences (including excused absences) that the student cannot reasonably expect to pass the course. An instructor may also award the temporary grade of I (Incomplete) only under certain circumstances. (See the Incomplete (I) section under the Grading System section for specific information.)

Note: A student who wishes to withdraw from a course must withdraw officially through the Registrar's Office; simply informing the instructor of the intent to withdraw is not sufficient. The Withdrawal from Courses section which follows gives more information.

Accreditation or certification standards that require more stringent attendance policies may govern certain departments or programs.

College regulations specify that only students who have registered for the class and who are listed on the official class rolls may attend a class. Students not listed on official class rolls may not attend classes; nor may students who have withdrawn or who have been withdrawn attend classes.