UVA Engagements Attendance Policy

Consistent attendance and thoughtful in-class participation are absolutely essential for your successful completion of Engagements courses. Since each course is only 7 weeks long (with 13 class meetings), each absence is significant. That said, there are situations in which you may need to miss a class meeting. In those situations, Engagements professors are asked to observe the following policy:

Excused Absences

Authorized university activities (such as university-sponsored athletic events) and the observance of religious holidays are considered excused absences. However, you must submit a written request detailing the dates of these absences directly to your professor in the first week of the course. If these types of absences would result in you missing more than 2 of the required class meetings, you may need to switch to a different course with fewer scheduling conflicts.

Unexcused Absences

We all get sick and we have all experienced unexpected family and personal emergencies. Therefore, you may miss 2 of the 13 class meetings without an automatic penalty with respect to your final grade. You should notify your professor in advance, when possible, and are responsible for making up any missed work. In line with College policy, professors are under no obligation to offer alternative assignments or to organize and facilitate make-up work: students must take the initiative.

Penalties for too many unexcused absences:

After the second unexcused absence, any subsequent unexcused absence will incur an automatic one letter-grade (or 10 out of 100 points) penalty. For example: A student with “A” level work who misses a total of 3 classes would receive a “B” letter grade A student with “A” level work who misses a total of 4 classes would receive a “C” letter grade But please always remember: If you are experiencing significant and pressing personal circumstances, particularly if those circumstances interfere with your ability to attend class and complete coursework, you should contact your academic advisor to talk through the situation as soon as possible. Help is available, and these situations can almost always be worked out – but you need to let us know that there’s a problem.