Section 1: Overview
With Spring 2022 syllabus planning underway, Students United would like to highlight the importance of classroom absence policies in ensuring an inclusive higher education experience for students.
The ability for a student to not be in a classroom when it’s necessary for their personal circumstances is important to the overall success of them as people, as well as their academic outcomes. Absence policies with a lens towards equity can ensure more equal outcomes for all students and allow students to model their higher education experience as perceived equals to other stakeholders.
There are several key absence types that may be covered in a class absence policy. First are absence policies defined and/or protected by the law or by the institution. They are generally noted in most syllabi or are otherwise rights that students may be aware of. These include, but are not limited to, military leave, leave for jury duty, university-sanctioned athletic activities absences, and/or absences corresponding with approved accessibility accommodations.
Remaining forms of absences may, or may not, be explicitly named by the institution and are generally left up to the individual faculty to entirely, or partially, define for themselves. These are:
Bereavement leave/grief absence
Medical/health absence outside of approved accessibility accommodations
Religious/cultural absence
There are strong absence policies that can balance the need for an engaged classroom and academic success with individuals’ personal success. Policies that establish faculty and students as equal partners in the academic experience ensure mutual respect and allow both parties to feel, and be seen as, individual human beings.
Section 2: How Might These Absence Policies Hinder or Help Equity?
Grief Absence (Bereavement): Excessively defined and bureaucratic bereavement policies, or policies interpreted with a specific perspective on grief, can cause undue stress on a student during an especially vulnerable, stressful, and painful time. While most faculty and institutions are empathetic and well-intentioned in their approach, their own perspectives on grief/funeral practices may inform the restrictions around the absence and unintentionally create difficulty. We should aim to create inclusive policies, rather than disadvantage all students out of fear of misuse by some.
Some things to keep in mind:
Loved ones can look like a lot of different things. People may be raised by aunts and uncles, non-blood relatives may be chosen family, there may be cultural or religious practices that require attendance of a procession regardless of the relationship.
In the event that there is fear of a flexible policy being abused, it’s understandable to want to require some documentation. However, requiring proof of a funeral, such as a death certificate, can be emotionally taxing and make an individual under high stress feel dehumanized. Additionally, for funerals outside of the United States, death certificates may not even be a possibility as they are not equally commonplace everywhere.
Medical/Health Absence: Requiring doctors’ notes for short-term health/medical absences can be contrary to the health needs of the individual students (and even the public.) Prior to the pandemic, digital medical care was limited and people generally travelled around, unmasked, carrying infectious diseases like the cold and flu. Requiring a doctor’s note to excuse an absence related to a short-term illness, such as a cold, requires students to pay a co-pay to receive the note, and often requires student who may be tired, infectious, and/or clearly know what they are sick with to travel to get a note. We should aim to refrain from medical documentation unless it’s necessary for long-term absence and understand that a student who is requesting an excused absence is ultimately in charge of their own academic experience and that an inclusive policy can enhance students’ recovery time.
Some things to keep in mind:
With many classes still online and likely to remain online, it’s important to rethink medical accommodations. While some students may be able to Zoom into a class while sick, some may slow their recovery if they are worried about giving their full attention to an online course in the middle of their condition.
In order to secure a doctor’s note, students will have to pay their insurance co-pay. This could deter students and result in them choosing an unexcused absence rather than communicating their needs.
Some students may not know that some medical needs could qualify as protected disabilities that Accessibility Services on campus can assist in accommodating. This includes concerns related to COVID-19 and mental health needs. Noting that for a student could assist them in receiving the support they need for academic and personal success.
Religious/Cultural Absence: The diversity of our institutions is our strength. Anticipating all the traditions our students may participate in is more difficult than creating a flexible policy that can allow students to fully participate in their protected religious freedom without compromising the success of their academic experience. From varied cultural traditions to dozens of religious practices, students may need time off for holidays, observances, prayers, and events that are less prioritized by the academic calendar than the western, Christian tradition. Students across our campuses have identified barriers in securing excused absences for observing religious and cultural traditions, including situations in which a particular holiday or observance is unknown to the faculty and, thus, not excused or situations in which little effort is made to assist the student in planning ahead.
Some things to keep in mind:
Our campuses include a diverse array of religious and cultural practices. A great resource to track major cultural and religious observances is https://www.diversityresources.com/2022-diversity-calendar/
Some religious and cultural traditions follow a different calendar than the solar, Western calendar and, thus, are on different calendar days annually.
After Christain faiths and no religious affiliation, Judaism and Islam make up the largest religious groups in Minnesota. The Muslim population has grown substantially in the last two decades.
Some religious observances require not doing work, including not going to class or doing something like homework. Some may also require particular practices at particular times of day.
Section 3: Current Absence Policies by University
Students United has compiled public absence policies by university. Find all the policies here.
Section 4: Suggested Policies
We encourage faculty to model the communication style they want from students, including around absences. Higher education can be experienced very differently by different students. When faculty and students reciprocate respect, the academic experience can be more fulfilling for everyone.
We recommend that, in general, faculty have an allotted number of general excused absences students can use for whatever they need while encouraging continued communication. This allows for flexibility and, in large classrooms, can reduce complications with communication around individual absences.
We also recommend faculty explicitly note that students should discuss any planned absences at the commencement of the semester.
Syllabi should include the excusal appeal process, whether that’s an established process within the department/college or an individual process for the specific course.
Grief/Bereavement:
An open-ended grief absence policy that allows the individual to request a certain number of days of excused absences to attend a funeral and/or grieve is the simplest approach. The policy should refrain from explicitly defining which deaths will be considered excused (and, consequentially, which ones are not.) The faculty should be willing to give a student that time regardless of their relationship to whomever passed. The policy may be easiest if there are a set number of allotted excused absences offered to a student; the student could then request more than the allotted days if needed. Faculty can also direct students to leave of absence policies when days off extend beyond the ability to effectively catch up or complete the course.
We recommend faculty be open to learning about the diverse grief and funeral practices of our students and their communities.
Medical/Health Absence:
The simplest way to account for medical absences is to allot a general number of excused absences to be used by students as needed. If a student’s health needs exceed that number, or require accommodation to participate in class, case by case communication is a great way to encourage students to articulate their needs and seek our accessibility services. Faculty should also consider offering hybrid courses, make up work, or other ways for students to catch up on the course later if possible.
Religious/Cultural Absence:
Much like grief and medical absences, a general number of allotted excused absences are helpful for students to plan for cultural and religious observances. Explicitly noting, in the syllabus and the first day of the class, that students should communicate any planned absences now can be a fantastic way to open doors for learning, encourage the student to manage their course load proactively, and gives the faculty time to plan accordingly.