- Faculty members establish their own class attendance policies and must provide these policies to students at the beginning of the semester (in writing and/or posted on a public website). This policy should also be verbally communicated during the first class (and laboratory) session of the semester (within the drop/add period). Please be certain that your current policy is included in your syllabus and that your syllabus is on file with your School office.
For all courses that have any required activities scheduled outside of class time, faculty must include the required activities with their attendance policy. In addition, students must be given sufficient advance notice, at least 4 weeks in advance of the date and time of these activities.
For all courses that will conduct exams outside of class time, faculty must include with their attendance policy the time and the day (e.g., Wednesdays 6-8 p.m.) at which the exams will be administered. - It is each faculty member’s discretion as to whether missing class for any purpose (bereavement, observance of a religious holiday, health/medical, personal business, varsity intercollegiate athletic contest, or any other activity) is an excusable absence. Faculty should establish attendance policies that treat all students equally.
Siena College is committed to diversity. An essential element of this commitment should be recognition of the diverse religious practice within our community. On occasion, a student’s religious obligations may conflict with the academic requirement to attend class. In that case, a student should provide faculty instructors advance notice that he or she plans to miss class and arrange to make up work, in a manner consistent with course attendance policies. The faculty, in turn, will support students in any way they can. - Class attendance policies are not in effect during a vacation period (vacations as listed in the Academic Calendar) and between terms when classes are not in session, unless attendance at a class-related-activity is specified by the faculty member in the course syllabus at the beginning of the semester. In conformance with College policy, when course exams are held outside of class time, if a student is absent due to a conflict with a scheduled contest, the student is "excused" and subject to the faculty member's policy regarding excused absence from an examination period.
- It is often necessary to reschedule contests after the semester has commenced (often due to weather-related cancellations). The Athletic Department and student-athletes should inform faculty of these changes in schedule as soon as is possible. Faculty should be flexible and reasonable in handling these changes. For these cases, the stated attendance policy is in effect and the faculty member should as soon as is possible inform a student if the changes in schedule will affect the student's grade and/or the student's ability to successfully complete the course requirements.
- If a post-season athletic contest, scheduled by the MAAC or the NCAA, conflicts with a course examination, an affected student is excused from the examination and the faculty member will provide a make-up exam (or other appropriate accommodation) at another time within the examination period or no later than 24 hours after the last day of the examination period.
- The VPAA, Deans, and Registrar should attempt to make up the final examination schedule as early as possible. The earliest date would most likely be at the end of the last "add" date. Also, this would most likely involve changes in many practices, including the deadline for faculty requests for "examination exceptions/special-scheduling".
Auditing students must be advised that if attendance standards are not met, the instructor will notify the Registrar, and a grade of "W" will be assigned.
Please note that the U grade is calculated as a failure and should be used when a student fails a course because of absences.
It is advisable that each faculty member keep accurate, verifiable attendance records for all students and notify the AVPAA if any student misses more than three classes in succession through the SKIPS hotline at SKIPS@siena.edu. The Registrar's staff will verify the status of the student. It is the student's responsibility to complete the appropriate withdrawal procedure or be subject to the same grading criteria as attending students. There have recently been lawsuits regarding disagreements between faculty and students concerning unverified absences. This is also important with regard to veterans’ benefits regulations.