Student Course Attendance & Participation

Attending every class meeting is important to your success in college. Guidelines for attendance are established by the faculty within a department or program, with the approval of the Academic Area Dean. Unless an announcement is made to the contrary, a class is considered dismissed if the instructor does not appear within fifteen minutes of the beginning of a class period.

Students are expected to follow the attendance policy outlined in the course syllabus. Students who expect to be absent for an extended period due to illness, accident, or other unavoidable problem should notify the office of the Vice President for Student Services and Enrollment Management at 774.357.2150.

Students who attend a field trip should plan with their other course instructors to make up any assignments missed on that day. Those who cannot attend classes, take an exam, study, or fulfill class assignments on a particular day because of their religious beliefs will be given an opportunity to make up their work at the convenience of the instructor. Students cannot be penalized for taking advantage of this right. 

In every case, the class instructor has full and final authority to decide whether a student is permitted to make up work missed through absence or lack of participation, and on what terms. Attendance and participation policies are noted on each course syllabus.

If a student never begins participation in a course or stops participating in a course prior to the semester census date, which is the last day that a student can add a course each semester, that student is not eligible for financial aid for this course, and it may result in a decrease or full cancellation of a student’s financial aid award.

Students are expected to attend and actively participate in all regularly scheduled classes and laboratory sessions.  Not only must a student be registered for a class, but students must also be actively participating to count as “enrolled” for financial aid eligibility purposes.

For all courses, it is the responsibility of the registered student to attend in person or log into each of their online courses during the first two weeks of enrollment and submit an academic activity as identified by the instructor. Students who do not submit this assignment during the first two weeks of class will be dropped during the enrollment verification period from any courses for which this assignment has not been completed.

For purposes of federal, Title IV, student financial assistance, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) requires institutions to be able to demonstrate that federal aid recipients established eligibility for federal aid by participating in academic-related activities for all enrolled course work.

Students must have their class participation verified by their professors prior to financial aid being disbursed.  Participation in academically related activities includes, but is not limited to:

Examples of acceptable evidence of academic attendance at an academically related activity include:

• physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students;
• attending a synchronous class, lecture, recitation, or filed or laboratory activity, physically or online, where there is an opportunity for interaction between the instructor and students;
• submitting an academic assignment;
• taking an assessment or exam, an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction;
• attending a study group, group project, or an online discussion that is assigned by the school or instructor;
• interacting with an instructor about academic matters;
• participating in an online discussion about academic matters and,
• documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction,
• a posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the institution,
• a posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic matters, and
• an e-mail from the student or other documentation showing that the student-initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.
  
  

Academically related activities do NOT include activities where a student may be present, but not academically engaged, such as:

• logging into an online class without active participation or,
• participating in academic counseling or advising.
  
  

Students who do not begin attendance or do not meet the participation requirements:

If a student failed to attend a course during the enrollment verification period, the student will be dropped from the course for nonattendance/non-participation and will receive a 100% refund for the course minus the student support fee. The student has the option of being reinstated in the course “providing they have instructor approval,”. A student receiving financial aid who is considered non-attending will have their financial aid recalculated according to the total number of credits that they are actively enrolled.

Students Who Stop Attending After the Enrollment Verification Period During the Semester:

For purposes of federal, Title IV, student financial assistance, the U.S. Department of Education requires institutions to be able to demonstrate that federal aid recipients established eligibility for federal aid by participating in academic-related activities for all enrolled course work.

Faculty will report any student who has not officially withdrawn but who has stopped attending and in the opinion of the instructor has not completed enough academic coursework to complete the course by entering a FINAL grade of WF. A WF grade is assigned at the end of the semester when a student has been determined to be non-participating but was reported as attending on the enrollment verification roster. See “Withdrawal Policy” for more information.