The following sample attendance and missed work policy is intended as a starting place – you should revise as necessary to make it your own, and to reflect the needs of your students, your course, and program.
If you are sick, please stay home. Don’t return to class until 24 hours after you are fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medicine. You are not required to obtain a doctor’s note to confirm your illness or recovery; it is expected that you will be honest about missing class due to illness. “The Illinois State University community strongly promotes the development of a personal values system that focuses on each person assuming responsibility for her/his own actions, and on maintaining dignity and truth”; abuse of this flexible absence policy is an act of dishonesty, as described in the Illinois State University Student Code of Conduct (http://www.deanofstudents.ilstu.edu/downloads/crr/code-of-student-conduct.pdf), and may result in disciplinary action.
If you are absent from class due to illness, please contact me via email (ULID@ilstu.edu) or telephone (438-XXXX) as soon as possible to let me know that you will not be in class. You should visit our Blackboard course to check for materials that you have missed, announcements, and updates, and work with classmates to get notes for the time you were absent.
If you miss class for 3 or more days and have been unable to reach me, you should contact the Dean of Students Office at http://www.deanofstudents.ilstu.edu/absences.shtml.
Because all coursework contributes in some way to your learning in this course, you will need to make arrangements to complete ALL missed coursework within one week of returning to class.
(Source: Indiana University (2009), Guide for Alternative Instruction Methods)
As you have probably heard, there is a possibility that instruction in this class will be interrupted by an outbreak of the H1N1 ("swine") flu, either because a large number of class members are ill and unable to attend class, or because I am ill and unable to attend class.
The most important thing is that, if you begin to have flu-like symptoms, follow the advice of physicians and health officials – if it means staying home and missing class, that is what you should do until you have recovered.
If the class is interrupted, here is what will happen:
- I will contact you via e-mail directly and an announcement on the class Blackboard website.
- I will continue to work through the syllabus as planned, but instead of holding class, I will post short writing assignments on Blackboard. You will have one week to respond to each assignment, unless you yourself are ill, in which case please tell me and I will grant an appropriate extension.
- The "class participation" portion of your grade will be based on these writing assignments for the interrupted part of the course. A final examination is still planned.
The Professor reserves the right to make changes in this policy at any time if circumstances are warranted.
If you have a policy that meets the guidelines set out by the University and are willing to share it, please contact CTLT at 438-2542 or teachtech@ilstu.edu so that we can make it available to others as well!
