The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent technological developments are among the reasons the university has chosen to revise its six-year-old excused absence policy.
“We hadn’t revisited the excused absence policy since 2019,”said Kathryn Smith, the director of student advocacy and success.
The Office of Academic Affairs recently made changes to the policy. With their revisions, students can now get excused absences for web courses.
With the rise of online classes driven by COVID-19 and technological advances, it has become important for online absences to be excused, which, under the old policy, there weren’t any provisions to allow for.
“Online classes weren’t even mentioned in the original document,” Smith said. “I was only allowed to approve in-person classes.”
Last winter, there were inclement weather events, and in the policy, it was up to professors to excuse weather related absences. Many were denied.
In one particularly bad example, a driveway had become flooded, preventing one student from leaving their home, and their absence had been denied as excused, Smith said. Now, under the new policy, students can be excused for extreme weather events.
Among other changes, it used to be that only the death of direct family members would be excused, but the policy has changed to allow for any close relationship to become excused.
Another change limits the amount of time for students to submit absences to be excused.
“We used to not really have a time limit on it, but now students have 10 days to turn in the excuse,” Smith said. “Once they return, they have five instructional days to turn in their absence into their professor first. If the professor denies it or doesn’t respond within those five days, then they have an additional five days to submit their excuse to Student Affairs.”
Once a student informs the office, faculty should be informed within 48 hours, she said.
“I would say give it two days just because of how many excuses we have that come in a day,” Smith said.
Smith said as of Sept. 25, there have been 905 excuses submitted. Of those, 724 were excused, 104 were denied and 77 were under review.
Students with chronic disabilities should contact the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations to receive accommodations for missed classes.
“As long as they are registered with their office, then all they have to do is click that they’re a part of the office (on the excused absence form),” Smith said.
If students have a grievance with their absence not being excused, they should contact the Office of Student Advocacy. Then, if the absence is still not accepted as excused, the final contact is Lisa Martin, the senior director of the Office of Advocacy and Accountability.
Appeals are up to the discretion of the Office of Advocacy and Accountability.
Phoenix Bishop can be contacted at bishop137@marshall.edu.
