Graduate Attendance Policy

Regular class attendance and participation in course activities are fundamental to success in graduate studies at The University of Tampa. Each class meeting provides new and distinctive resources for academic growth and progress. Thus, graduate students are expected to attend scheduled class meetings. Students should consult their instructor’s course syllabus for detailed course requirements. Course requirements and activities (e.g., homework assignments, examinations, presentations, laboratory experiments and reports, participations in discussion, fieldwork) are not waived due to class absences.  Students should work with the course instructor to seek accommodations for those times they may be required to miss class. 

Academic departments may establish a threshold for the number or proportion of course meetings a student may miss during the semester. Faculty may consider excessive absences when assessing a student’s educational performance.

Faculty will make accommodation for scheduled excused absences. Acceptable reasons for scheduled excused absences include:

• Court-imposed legal obligations (e.g., jury duty and subpoenas)
• Medical procedures
• Observation of religious holy days
• Requirements of military service.
• NCAA sponsored competition and related travel

Faculty also may consider applying the excused absence rules for other activities deemed appropriate on a case-by-case basis. Students seeking excused absences should provide advanced written notification (within the first two weeks of the beginning of the semester, or, in exceptional cases not scheduled prior to a given semester, as soon as the student becomes aware of the activity), along with a rationale for why the absence should be excused. Faculty should state in their syllabus whether they will allow such exceptions. No faculty member is required to make allowances beyond official policy, but students should be notified so they may plan accordingly.

Faculty may make accommodations for unscheduled absences involving unforeseen emergencies such as illness, injury, hospitalization, deaths in the immediate family, consequences of severe weather, and other crises. Students should contact instructors as soon as possible in these cases. Instructors may require documentation or verification to excuse unscheduled absences.

Employment schedules, personal appointments, and athletic conditioning and practice schedules are not valid reasons for scheduled excused absences.