I’ve skipped my Spanish class a fair amount. Her attendance policy was laid out on the first day - 100 points for attendance, every missed day takes 2 points off. Not a big deal, I’ve probably missed 8 days. I like Spanish, I have a high B in the class, I am motivated to learn, I just skip a lot because I’ve been struggling with depression. It’s the last class of my day, so a lot of times I just want to go home. I also just started a new medication and I am nauseated and have had a headache for 5 days.
Anyway, she told me last Wednesday that I was being “very disrespectful” by skipping, and that she understands missing a few days, but this was not acceptable. Despite just spiking my anxiety to make me even more avoidant, I was starting to worry she could forcibly drop me?? My head seriously hurts so bad I can barely stand. I hate sending professors teary emails about how pathetic I am, it seems so unnecessary - I am an adult and I can choose to not come to class. Right???
In many classes attendance is a requirement, so you could be legitimately failed even if the teacher isn’t “mad at you.”
You say you’re an adult – so act like it. Seems to me you have 3 choices: drop the class for medical reasons, make yourself attend it, or risk getting an F. Your choice.
Financial Aid policies (federal) usually require schools to report students who have never attended or who have stopped attending a class. At the university where I worked, when midterm grades were submitted faculty also indicated if a student had stopped attending. Those students were contacted first but could be administratively dropped.
It sounds like you should discuss this with an academic advisor at your school. Most schools want their students to succeed but you need to communicate with them.
Most colleges I know of won’t allow Profs to drop students for skipping several classes. I had a college instructor friend who wasn’t even allowed to drop students who never showed up for the ENTIRE SEMESTER.
However, if you have depression and its serious affecting your attendance, you should make an appointment to register with your college’s disability office and ask for accommodations in light of the depression and its effects under the ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act).
If you do this now, those grading penalties are likely be waived.
BTW: Skipping 8 classes in a semester is a lot. Not a very good practice for one’s college career.
I can’t imagine skipping language classes. That’s a sure road to disaster. I think you should talk to an academic adviser about your best course of action. It may be an abject apology to the teacher with some explanation that you’ve been ill is all you need to do, but continuing your current course of action is a bad idea.
It seems that as you say her policy was “laid out on the first day” – 2 points off for every missed class. So I would view that as the “policy” and would not think to worry about her dropping me from the class for another absence.
If you are willing to take the hit on the attendance grade for another absence then you should be free to skip class because of your headache.
If you can’t bring yourself to show up for the class, drop it. The professor can’t force you to drop a class unless you do something in class that violates the student code of conduct, but she can enforce the penalties for absence as described in the syllabus. You are an adult and you can make choices and take the consequences of those choices, which in this case, is a lower grade if you don’t go to class. 8 classes is a month’s worth of classes out of a three month semester. That’s a lot of missed class.
It’s not just 2 points off for missing the class, you also lose the 100 points you would have received for attending class. If you miss 10 classes and other students don’t miss any, they are going to be 1020 points ahead of you. That may be a significant difference when it comes to grades.
I did have a professor in law school who wouldn’t pass you (don’t know if he required you to drop the class or if he just failed you) if you missed more than 25% of the classes. It met 4 days per week, so miss once a week and you were SOL. Several classmates got notices that they couldn’t miss any more classes with several weeks to go in the class. It was his policy, not the school’s, because I had a class that only met twice a week and I missed quite a few of them.
You need to go to the student health center and get help with treating a headache so terrible that you “can barely stand.” That is serious, and you need to attend to that right away.
Professors cannot drop students. My daughter was in a class where the professor was complaining that he had a student registered for the class who had not shown up all semester (despite the professor emailing him and the advisor). The professor was upset that he had no choice but to give the student an F, instead of the student withdrawing and getting a W.
To answer the Op’s last question, Yes. You are legally an adult and can choose whether or not to attend class. It isn’t a prison sentence imposed by a judge. It is a life choice that you are making to advance toward a career, or not. As a legal adult, you can choose to take steps necessary to better your position in life, or you can choose not to do so.
But as a legal adult YOU are responsible now for your choices. Reap the rewards or suffer the consequences.
Either get off your butt and attend classes or get off your butt and seek medical diagnoses and possible medical excuses.
I am assuming since you call yourself an adult, you are a full pay student using your own money, right? You aren’t having mommy and daddy pay for your school right? If you are, then you are an adult legally, but not really an adult in a practical sense. If your parents are paying your way you owe them an obligation too. Attending class is part of your obligation to them.
On a side note, I would register with the disabilities office ASAP.
If you’re getting an “84” instead of a “100” for attendance (which is how I understood your post), I don’t see what the problem is. It’s your grade/your life. You might be catastrophizing.
I teach at a college, a community college, and have for the past 20+ years. I attend conferences with lots of 4-year degree granting U professors and we talk a great deal about college and classroom (i.e. teacher) policies. There is some misinformation on this thread so far, IMHO.
Let me put it like this:
Yes, you are adult and yes you can "choose not to come to class." And the teacher can choose to drop you. I hope that is stated simply enough. The teacher sets the classroom policies with the authority of the schools board of trustees and as long as the teacher's polices do not violate the schools policies and/or federal and state law the teacher can have whatever attendance policy promotes learning. .
You then go on to state it seems so unnecessary. Well, in some sense cases you are right. Coming to class can be unnecessary because so much of the work (the learning) is done outside of class. In come cases, teachers just post stuff online and the students teach themselves. In other cases, the classroom is a laboratory for learning and missing class is a big deal even if you think you are learning because you could more if you had been in class.
If you don't want to come to class you could always take an online or hybrid class but if you sign up for a face to face class, guess what, that means you should be in class.
If the teacher has no attendance policy, as stated in the syllabus, then you might be right that she can't drop you for missing too many classes. But, keep in mind you agree to the student code of conduct by registering for classes and the SCoC could allow the teacher to drop you.
I don't think she can drop you for being "mad" but she can drop you for being disruptive (coming in late) or missing class too much as previously stated.
At my college, you can't drop students for being disruptive without a due process cycle which is another long story. The bottom line is, as #1 said, you are an adult consider acting like one and if you have medical issues get them handled. From a teacher's perspective, let me tell you, students claim a lot of problems that turn out to be just irresponsible and immature behavior. It isn't cute. It isn't going to help you in the future. Try to grow out of that and join the adult world as soon as possible.
^^good points. Definitely go through your syllabus and university policies with a fine-tooth comb. But try not to panic or overly dramatize the situation. When we’re having health problems things can seem worse than they actually are.
Our S opted not to attend a U that told him they’d ask him to withdraw from the U if he missed 2 weeks of classes in any quarter, EVEN if it was due to medically documented issues. They said that each instructor/prof could make and enforce their attendance policy. They said he’d lose any merit award and more if forced to withdraw. The U he opted to attend was more understanding and agreed to work with S and the disabilities office, where S was registered