Go to class or be dropped

The University of Arizona attendance policy, as outlined in the Spring 1998 Schedule of Classes, states, "At the discretion of your instructor, you may be dropped from your class if you are absent."

With this open-ended statement, departmental attendance policies can vary, according to employees in the offices of various colleges' dean's offices.

In fact, most departments leave attendance policies and their enforcement up to professors.

And what the professors do can be very different.

Tom Miller, director of composition for the English Department, said a student missing the first two meetings of freshman composition classes English 101 or 102 will be administratively dropped.

"In the first week, if you miss two classes you can be dropped," Miller said. "However, if a student contacts us with an emergency or extraordinary situation we will work with them."

After the first week of school, any student who misses three classes that meet Tuesdays and Thursdays or four classes that meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, will also be administratively dropped, Miller said.

He said the policy of dropping absent students opens spaces for the almost 10,000 students who need to take freshman composition classes each year.

Cary Nederman, undergraduate adviser and associate professor in the Political Science Department, said his department does not have an attendance policy.

"Each faculty member can decide for him or herself," Nederman said. "It's really instructor-by-instructor."