Temporary Policy: Student Attendance

ENDORSED BY FACULTY SENATE ON MARCH 11, 2020

We are facing a challenging situation in which all of us are called on to make a good faith effort to be flexible and to make decisions in the best interest of the community. In light of this, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, with the endorsement of the Faculty Senate, is temporarily suspending the usual guidelines regarding instructor authority in setting attendance policies. For the immediate future, the campus-wide student attendance policy is as follows:

Students will not be required to provide supporting documentation to justify absences which are a result of an illness or a concern of illness. Faculty are strongly encouraged to work with their students in their courses so that students can make up assignments that are missed due to illness or concern about illness. Students should notify their instructors in advance of the absence if possible and should keep up with classwork if they are able to do so.

This temporary campus-wide policy puts everyone on their honor. It requires that faculty and instructors trust the word of their students when they say they are ill, and it requires that students report the reason for their absence truthfully. All of this is to say that the usual codes of conduct and rules of academic integrity are still in place.

More information on what to do if you are sick is available  at the CDC’s website.

Home