Attendance and dropping

All students are expected to attend all classes. Too many absenses without reasonable cause lead to being dropped by the instructor. The general rule is that a student can miss, of the entire semester or nine week period, up to the number of classes in a week. In other words, a class that meets on MWF has a maximum of 3 missed classes before a student is dropped, whereas a class that meets on MW has a maximum of 2 missed classes before a student is dropped.

Reasonable cause is limited to the following categories:

• death or serious injury/sickness of the student
• death or serious injury/sickness of an immediate member of the student's family (parent, sibling, spouse, child)
• contagious sickness that can potentially lead to death or permanent or temporary inability to work/study
• accidents and necessary time sensitive responses to accidents (filing claims, meeting with lawyers, etc.)

Even with reasonable causes, a student cannot miss any more than two weeks of class meetings unless the instructor is convinced said student still has a possibility to catch up and pass the class. This exception applies only to students with sufficient prior experience or exposure to the topics in the syllabus.

In all cases, a student is responsible to catch up with the class in case of any absense. The instructor has no obligation, besides class meetings and pre-designated office hours, to help a student catch up with the class even if there is reasonable cause for absense.