You are expected to attend all class sessions for which you are registered.
Adopted February 2014. Middlesex Community College is committed to supporting student success. The College acknowledges that there is often a direct correlation between student success and classroom attendance. A student who misses an individual lecture or classroom activity may limit her/his learning opportunities as well as diminish the learning experience of all members of a course. Moreover, an absence may negatively impact such student’s ability to remain current with course information. This often results in a struggle to keep pace with peers in the course.
Students are expected to attend all class sessions for which they are registered. It is the responsibility of students to make up all course work missed because of legitimate class absences and to notify the instructor if they know when an absence will occur. Students who are reported as never attending a course may be withdrawn from the course by the College. Such withdrawal may jeopardize a student’s academic standing, financial aid award, and/or veterans’ benefits.
Instructors of online courses may define “attendance” as regular participation in electronic course activities including, but not limited to, discussions, chats, journals, quizzes, and assignments. Students who fail to participate in the prescribed manner may miss deadlines for assignments and reduce their ability to maintain pace with course topics and work.
Instructors are required to take attendance during the first three weeks of class for the purpose of reporting to the Financial Aid Office those students who have never attended class. Instructors are encouraged, but not mandated by the College, to require students to attend each class, take attendance in their courses, and assess student attendance either directly or through regular graded classroom participation and/or assessments. However, student attendance cannot be the sole basis for a course grade.
All instructors have the right to prepare and teach college-approved courses to best represent the fields in which they teach, in accordance with approved course descriptions and class schedules. Attendance can be tied to many planned classroom activities and assessments that can be tied directly to a student’s grade. For example, missing a weekly quiz because of non-attendance can negatively impact a student’s grade. Failing to participate in a “regulated” classroom discussion can also result in a negative impact on a student’s grade. Missed laboratory or studio activities and participation in group work, can result in a negative grade.
Faculty members are required to distribute to students during the first week of classes, subject to subsequent modification, a course syllabus which contains information as to course objectives, topics and assigned time-frames, indication of evaluative and grading mechanisms to be utilized, reading and attendance requirements, special circumstances under which student absences may be excused, and stipulations for making up work and exams missed during instructor-excused absences. Specific course requirements will be noted in each course syllabus.
Note: Veterans should contact the college Veterans Affairs office for more information about attendance and their funding.
