Take Your Damn Germs HOME.

See? What is wrong with these people? I mean, I know professors hear a lot of excuses, but this is just nuts. What if you’re hospitalized for 2 days, one of which happens to be class day? The ego on some of them, like their class is so important you should leave the hospital for it.

My school’s attendance nut was apparently semi-publicly reprimanded for his policy after threatening to fail students who got called up on gaurd duty after 9/11-- in direct violation of University Policy on that particular topic. (What makes this EXTRA despicable is that I went to school in NJ. These people were being called up to actually work at ground zero). The department chair called him an embarassment to the university.

I found that poor lecturers always had the strictest attendance policies. A good, engaging instructor who actually taught while he was talking could always fill a class. But those people who just summarized the text? Attendance rules are the only way to keep bodies in the seats. (My advisor always told me he felt attendance rules were the crutch of a bad teacher)

I find it very difficult to believe that this is permissible under your school’s academic policies.

First, check the syllabus and be sure that that policy is actually spelled out in writing, and it’s not just hot air. Then check your student handbook and the faculty handbook. There is almost certainly a list of situations which require the instructor to excuse student absences. Ours include documented illness or family emergency, religious observances, summons to appear in court, activities of recognized school groups (such as sports teams, the debate team, musical groups, etc.), duty in the National Guard, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting.

If a professor threatens to fail you for not coming to class when you were ill, and you have a note from your doctor saying you were too ill to go to class, go to the professor’s department head and complain. If that doesn’t work, go to the dean or ombudsman (again, check your student handbook to see what the policy is on who handles complaints of this sort.)

At my school anyway, the one particular professor would flagrantly defy university policy (on other things that just attendance, too). If you got the dean or department head involved, you could get your absence excused. I think he just preyed upon the ignorance & fear of freshman, which is pretty crappy, in my opinion. The year I graduated (after the National Gaurd incident) they finally cracked down on that.