Excessive Absence Policy

Hope College encourages students to regularly attend class and allows faculty to develop their own classroom attendance policies. Attendance and participation in class are vital components of a residential college experience.

Instructors are encouraged to monitor student attendance and are required to report excessive absences, as defined below. College staff receive notice of these reports in order to help support student success and learning, and to intervene and provide resources when students are not thriving.

For purposes of determining if a student is in attendance, they must be physically present in seated, in-person classes, and/or they must be participating in online classes on at least a weekly basis or as otherwise required by the course attendance policy. Online course participation includes participating in discussion boards, submitting assignments on time, and/or interacting with the instructor through electronic means.

Faculty shall excuse a student from class when the college’s excused absences policy applies and may establish and implement course-level policies on excused absences.

Excessive Absences Definition

Hope College Office of the Registrar reserves the right to administratively drop or withdraw a student from class for excessive absences, which are defined as follows:

16-week courses: Unexcused, consecutive absences resulting in missing more than half of the classes during the first 10 calendar days of class or missing a third or more of the days of instruction throughout the semester due to unexcused absences. Instructors may establish a more stringent definition of excessive absences for their courses and shall report such absences in accordance with this policy. For online, asynchronous courses, an excessive absence would be defined as not participating at least once during the first week.
4-week courses: Not participating at least once during the first week of an online, asynchronous course; failing to be in attendance during the first two class meetings of a seated course; missing a third or more of the days of instruction during the term due to unexcused absences.

Special note: Students are responsible for keeping track of their number of absences. Instructors are not required to notify a student orally or in writing if the student has excessive absences.

Continued reported unexcused absences or excessive absences may result in appropriate interventions including structured accountability planning, referrals to campus resources, and in cases of pattern and/or severity, judicial review. In cases in which a student is excessively absent, judicial review can result in administrative withdrawal from courses. In the case of administrative withdrawal, the Office of the Registrar will notify the student, the Financial Aid Office, Residential Life, Student Accounts, Athletics (if applicable), and International Advisor (if applicable) of its decision to administratively drop or withdraw a student for excessive absences.

Special note: Administrative drops and withdrawals will follow the official drop and withdrawal deadlines published on the Academic Calendar. After the official withdrawal deadline has expired, students will be awarded the standard letter grade assigned by the instructor of the course.

Consequences of Excessive Absences

An administrative drop or withdrawal may impact a student’s scholarships, federal financial aid, and their ability to live in Hope’s college housing. Residence Life requires that students maintain full-time status to live in college housing, and the Student Handbook addresses the consequences of falling below this threshold, which may include requiring the student to vacate their college housing.

Financial Aid will take appropriate action under applicable policies related to student aid.

Reinstatement

Students who are administratively dropped or withdrawn will be informed of the decision in writing on the effective date. A student may request to be reinstated using the following procedure:

The student must complete a Request for Reinstatement within 2 business days of receiving the drop/withdraw notification.
In consultation with the Registrar, the instructor of record shall consider the feasibility of completing the course within the class time remaining, and must approve the student’s reinstatement into the course.
Upon reinstatement approval, the Office of the Registrar and Student Accounts will be notified by the Registrar; any unpaid tuition and fees for the course must be paid before the student is re-enrolled.

Approved: Curriculum Committee, March 2023; Academic Affairs Board, April 2023