Absence and Lateness Policies

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Missing and Being Late for Class, and How to Make Up Work

One of the most important characteristics of a technical professional is their ability to meet their commitments. To prepare you for your technical career, we make attendance mandatory at all EG1004 classes. However, we recognize that there may be exceptional circumstances which cause you to be late or miss class. This page explains how to handle those events.

Technical professionals always work on teams, so it is critical that you learn how to act as a member of a team. Therefore, EG1004 gives you an opportunity to build this skill by having you work with one or more partners on the labs and projects.

When somebody misses a lab or recitation, it puts an unfair burden on their partners, where whoever remains now has to support the entire effort themselves. Therefore, we strongly discourage having students miss sessions unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

Missing a Lab

If you miss a lab, you will have to make up the lab on your own during the Open Lab in Room JAB573 (Model Shop). The Open Lab hours can be found on the EG Web site, and are also usually posted at the Model Shop entrance as well.

In order to make up the lab in the Open Lab, you will need to get permission to do so from the faculty member in charge of your section. To do this, download and print an EG1004 Open Lab Authorization form, or get one from a TA. You can click on the link below to get a copy of the form:

Fill in your name, student number, and lab, and get your faculty member to fill out the rest of the form. When you go to the Open Lab, the TA in charge will collect this form from you and let you make up the lab.

If you do not have a form, the Open Lab TA will not permit you to make up the lab!

Note that you’ll probably be working alone in the Open Lab, making the lab more difficult. Also, many of the labs are competitions, and have bonus points awarded based on how your team places. If you’re making up a lab in the Open Lab, you are not eligible for these bonus points.

Your lab presentation will be done at the same recitation as the regular lab presentations. Since you’ll be making up the lab usually several days after the scheduled lab session, this leaves you less time to prepare the presentation, making another good reason why you should not miss labs.

Finally, when you miss a lab, you will probably also miss a quiz related to the lab as well. There is no way to make up this quiz, so missing the lab is equivalent to getting a zero on a quiz. If you only miss one lab, there will probably be negligible impact on your overall grade, but a large number of absences will probably hurt you.

Note that your faculty member is not required to give you an authorization for the Open Lab. The faculty member will probably also want to discuss with you what’s wrong since you are missing a significant portion of the course experience.

Being Late for a lab

The first time you’re late for a lab, you will join the lab in progress. If you arrive while the quiz is underway, you can take the quiz, but will get no additional time to complete it. If you arrive after the quiz is over, you will get a zero for the quiz, and can do the lab in whatever time is left, but your Lab TA will notify your faculty member of your lateness. If you do not complete the lab in the alloted time, you will have to have your faculty member approve a form allowing you to finish the lab during Open Lab. See the preceding section on how to get an Open Lab form approved.

If you're late more than once, for all occurances after the first time you will not be admitted to the lab, will receive a zero for the quiz, and you will have to get the approval of your faculty member to make up the lab during Open Lab. See the preceding section on how to do this.

Missing a Recitation

If you miss a recitation, your partners will have to give the presentation without you. This puts a heavy burden on them, so you should only miss a recitation when there is a compelling reason to do so. In addition, you should notify your teammates of your absence ahead of time if at all possible. You should also notify your faculty member and Recitation TA of your absence ahead of time if at all possible.

If you are excused from the recitation by your faculty member, you will receive the same presentation grade as your teammates, although typically the grade is not as good as it could have been because of the extra burden they had to handle. If you are not excused, you will receive a zero for any coursework performed that day, including such things as lab presentations and milestone presentations.

Being late for a recitation

If you’re late for a recitation, it is at the faculty member’s discretion whether or not to allow you be admitted to the recitation. If you missed your team’s presentation, it will be equivalent to not having been at the recitation, as described above. If you are more than 10 minutes late for the recitation, the faculty member will not allow you to be admitted except in truly exceptional circumstances, and it will be equivalent to having missed the recitation, as described above.

Missing or being late for a Lecture

If you miss a lecture, there is no way to make it up. The TAs will take attendance at each lecture by scanning your student ID at the door. After the lecture has started, it is at the TAs discretion whether or not you should be admitted. If you are more than 10 minutes late for the lecture, you will not be admitted under any circumstances. Also, the lab quiz frequently contains questions on the preceding lecture, so if you miss the lecture you will probably not be able to answer these questions.

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