I’m sure many of you are hearing about this policy change through other channels, but the Hunter College Senate has just approved new language for how faculty can use attendance use as part of a course requirement. As you may know, Hunter (like all CUNY schools) is nominally not “an attendance-taking institution” in regard to Federal Title IV Regulations and financial aid. This has meant, practically, that faculty who have wanted to, well, require students to actually attend class, have had to use other means that an attendance policy to meet this goal, such as counting absences as zeroes for class participation or other forms of in-class work.

After this change, each instructor, in the words of the Senate,

has the right to set attendance as one of the requirements for the course and to use it as part of the grade. Such attendance policies must be clearly stated in the course syllabus.

This is good news for us, in that we have more freedom to align our policies regarding attendance, lateness, etc. with our grading and other assessment practices. As with all grading-related matters, it’s crucial to make your policies clear in the course materials and to apply them consistently.

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