Augustana College has adopted a new attendance policy for the 2024-2025 school year, allowing students to miss up to 10% of their classes with no penalties. According to the new policy, there is now no differentiation between unexcused or excused absences, removing any previously required documentation for missed classes.
Associate Dean of Academic Strategic Priorities, Greg Domski, said he served as a liaison to the educational policies committee during the creation of the new attendance policy.
For a regular, 14-week class, Domski said students are allowed to miss up to five classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes and three days on Tuesday and Thursday classes with no consequences, equaling 10% of the course’s duration.
“If it’s anything different than that, it should be 10% rounded up to the nearest whole number,” he said. “So even if 10% was 5.1, faculty should round it up to six missed classes.”
Prior to the policy change, Domski said the college had been following an attendance guideline that was put into place as a suggestion for professors to follow since 2016.
“Faculty had been operating under guidelines that they adopted, and the guidelines were always students should be allowed to miss up to 10% of classes for whatever reason,” Domski said. “And, faculty should work with students to allow them to either make up the work, drop that work or forgive the work.”
However, Domski said the problem with this was the fact that the previous attendance guidelines were never set in stone, resulting in a lack of enforcement or over-enforcement in certain classes.
“What I was finding pretty frequently is that there were faculty who were being more strict than the 10%… because it was guidance and not a policy,” he said. “I couldn’t really enforce that with the faculty.”
Domski said the 10% mark is now “essentially written in stone”, with the new policy allowing students to miss without a doctor’s note as well.
After 10%, Domski said professors have digression to allow additional absences within their classes or decline further absences.
“The two important boundaries are 10% and 30%,” he said. “Really the most important boundary is the 10%. Faculty have to allow students to either make up the work or forgive missed work for up to 10% of missed absences.”
Once a student approaches several absences equating to 30% of the course, Domski said this is when the college recommends withdrawing from the course.
“Between 10 and 30%, faculty have a lot of latitude,” he said. “So there could be faculty who say 10% is the max I can allow.”
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Katie Madel, said one way to understand the new attendance policy is to think of a minimum and maximum cap to absences. Madel said she was involved in later discussions regarding the new policy.
“Professors are not supposed to mess with that minimum cap, and with the exception of some extraordinary circumstances, we’ve given them some leeway where necessary,” Madel said.
Under the new policy, professors can also declare some days of class as mandatory, and students may be penalized for missing a day of class that was considered a mandatory day.
“Professors can declare that there are mandatory days, ones that students cannot miss because there is something crucial,” Madel said. “Field trips and presentations are some of the examples I’ve heard other professors give.”
If a student misses class on a non-mandatory day, as long as it falls within their allotted days, Domski said there are no questions asked.
“Now, for students who have Office of Disability Services approved or supported accommodations, or a modified attendance policy, for example, that supersedes or overrides the attendance policy,” Domski said.
He said the college will continue to provide student services and modifications as it is required by law to do so.
Many Augustana students are involved in extracurricular activities, such as athletics, which may cause them to miss class due to a tournament or event.
Sophomore Sarah Bond is on the women’s varsity golf team and said the team has had to cancel two tournaments to prioritize the attendance policy.
According to Domski, the college’s Athletic Director, Mike Zapolski, was heavily involved in discussions regarding the policy, as well as the Vice President and Dean of Student Life, Wes Brooks.
“Mike Zapolski put together really robust guidelines that he shared with all the coaches and student-athletes,” Domski said. “And Mike Zapolski, I should say, was a big part of the conversations when we developed the policy, and it was actually his advocacy and Dean Brooks’ advocacy that led us to go a bit higher than the 10% mark.”
Domski said all absences, whether they are for athletics, illnesses or college-sponsored events, count the same towards the 10% allotment.
“I want to play golf,” Bond said. “I came to Augustana to play golf, but I need to have good grades. It’s student-athlete, not athlete-student. It just kind of makes my relationship with golf kind of tense.”
