Student attendance policies can range from strict to non-existent. According to various departments at NIU, the policies are at the professors’ discretion.

“Some semesters I have had attendance policies and some semesters I do not,” associate professor of history James Schmidt said. “In this particular semester, I do not have an attendance policy.”

Department chairs do not have specific information on which professors have attendance policies, since it is left up to the individual professors.

The college of engineering and engineering technology does not mandate what a professor should have in his or her syllabus, said Mansour Tahernezhadi, associate dean of the college of engineering and engineering technology. Professors are in a hurry to get their material covered and a prescribed syllabus would take away from their time, he said.

As with other departments, the college of engineering and engineering technology regulates attendance through an indirect means via homework assignments, quizzes and tests, Tahernezhadi said. Students are disciplined in the department and attendance is usually around 95 percent, he said.

Students in the school of theater and dance know that their professors have a strict attendance policy. If the student misses three or more rehearsals, they face expulsion from the program. Missing a class makes the student ineligible for rehearsal that same day.

Students can’t favor attending one class as opposed to another class, said Alexander Gelman, director of the theater and dance school. Every professor has control over their own class.

Professors in the art education department know that their attendance policies will work to their students’ advantage later in their careers.

“We are teaching students to be professional,” said Deborah Smith-Shank, division head of the art education department. “They need to get used to coming to class because it is like going to work. Our faculty pay attention when students do not attend.”

Many classes have attendance as a part of the grade requirement, but a majority of classes focus on class participation as a substitute for attendance.

Attendance policies are law in the academic world, Schmidt said. He likes to structure his classes so that if the students do not show up then it will end up harming them.

However, some students do not always show up to all of their classes on a regular basis.

Attendance policies become too difficult to police, Schmidt said. It becomes too hard to decide whether or not the student’s excuse is valid.

Professors can understand students having one or two absences, but after two they need a good reason, Smith-Shank said. Each professor has their own “boiling point,” she said.