Class Attendance

Students are expected to attend all classes. Students may be dropped from a course by the department for non-attendance. Students registered for a course that they do not intend to keep should drop it as soon as possible so that the space is available for other students.

While there is no college-wide attendance policy, departments or individual instructors may have such policies and should post them on their syllabi. 

Note: Students who register for a course after it has begun may not be held responsible for attendance prior to registration but will be held responsible for completing any assessments (i.e. homework, quizzes, papers) that occurred prior to registration. 

Students Representing the University in an Official Capacity

There may be instances when students must miss class due to their commitment to officially represent the university. These students may be involved in performing arts, scientific or artistic endeavors, or intercollegiate athletics. 

While absence from class in these instances are excused, students are still responsible for any part of the course missed during their absence. Within reason, an instructor should provide appropriate arrangements to the student for missed work, providing such accommodations does not place unreasonable burden on the instructor or fundamentally alter the integrity of the course.  When the absence coincides with an exam or other assignment due date, the options to make up that missed work may be limited and will be determined by the instructor within the boundaries of the course.

Religious-Academic Conflicts

It is the policy of the University of Michigan to make every reasonable effort to allow members of the University community to observe their religious holidays without academic penalty. Absence from classes or examinations for religious reasons does not relieve students from responsibility for any part of the course work required during the period of absence. It is the obligation of students to provide faculty with notice of the dates on which they will be absent for religious observance by the end of the drop/add deadline of the term. 

Students who are absent on days of examinations or class assignments shall be offered an opportunity to make up the work, without penalty, unless it can be demonstrated that a make-up opportunity would interfere unreasonably with the delivery of the course. 

Should disagreement arise over any aspect of this policy, the parties involved should contact the department chair, the dean of the school, or the student ombudsperson. Final appeals will be resolved by the provost.

Note: This policy does not cover travel days that do not fall on the religious holiday.

Illness or Other Unanticipated Circumstance

When a student misses class because of an illness or other circumstance (either planned or unanticipated), it is the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor as soon as possible. In the case of documented short-term absence due to illness or other unanticipated event, instructors are encouraged to provide reasonable effort to accommodate the student in a way that maintains the integrity of the class. However, such accommodations are at the discretion of individual instructors. 

Students who miss class due to illness or other events should be prepared to provide documentation verifying the cause of the absence. 

LSA provides an Illness or Absence Reporting Form for students to self-report an illness and it is a centralized means of initial contact with all of a student's instructors. It is important for students to realize that this self-reporting does not constitute an excused absence and that instructors may request documentation to substantiate the absence. The email message that is generated to the student after self-reporting does point this out and indicates that it is the student's responsibility to contact their instructors directly about work missed during their absence.