Attendance Policy

Extended and Significant Absence

If a student is absent from class for an extended period of time due to extenuating circumstances (illness, death in immediate family, injury, etc.), the student or designee should notify the Health & Wellness Center by uploading documentation to the patient portal. Health & Wellness will coordinate communication with appropriate offices and the student’s faculty about the absence and anticipated duration of health concern. In cases where the course lends itself to make-up work, the student and faculty will collaborate on a plan to make up missed course work or find equivalent ways for the student to complete essential course requirements without compromising course standards. In other cases, it may be best for the student to withdraw from the course. A student should consider this option carefully as a withdrawal may have financial repercussions or may slow the student’s progress toward graduation. Before making this decision, a student should confer with both the instructor and their advisor and Student Financial Services to verify financial repercussions. Ultimately it is the student’s decision whether to withdraw. If the student decides to withdraw, the student must follow through by dropping the course through Fish ‘R’ Net by the published deadline. If the student withdraws from all enrolled courses in a semester, the student must follow the University Withdrawal process.

Repeated Absence

Where an instructor judges that repeated absence from a course has prevented a student’s satisfactory achievement, a grade of “FA” (failure due to absence) for that course may be submitted.

Late Arrivals

No instructor is obligated to admit a student to class who arrives late. A late arrival may be considered an absence.

Policy on Students, Employees and Religious Observance

To extend protection to students and employees when their religious observances or “holidays of conscience” (to include the official observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday) may conflict with academic and work responsibilities and to reasonably accommodate individuals’ religious obligations and practices without penalty, based on good faith of all persons concerned, St. John Fisher University has established the following policy and procedures:

  • No student will be dismissed from or refused admission at St. John Fisher University because he or she is unable to participate in any examination, study, or work requirements because of his or her religious obligations and practices.
  • St. John Fisher University will accept the responsibility of making available to each student who is absent from school because of his or her religious obligations and practices an equivalent opportunity to make up any examination, study, or academic work requirements that may have been missed because of such absence on any particular day or days. No fees will be charged to the students for costs incurred by the University’s provisions of special classes, examinations, or academic work requirements.
  • Faculty members who miss classes because of their religious obligations and practices will work with their department chairs to assure that the classes will be conducted and the coursework carried on during such absence on any particular day or days. Staff members will use a vacation day or days for such absence.
  • In effecting the provisions of this policy, the University’s administration and faculty agree to exercise the fullest measure of good faith and agree that no adverse or prejudicial effects will result to any student, who avails himself or herself of the institution’s policy on religious observances.
  • St. John Fisher University requires students to notify their instructors, in writing, no later than the fifteenth day after the first day of the semester of each class scheduled for a day on which the student or faculty member will be absent.
  • St. John Fisher University will annually publish this policy regarding religious observance for students, and employees in both the University Catalog, and in the Employee Handbook. Dates for written notification mentioned in the preceding paragraph will be listed in the semester academic calendar.
  • All employees are advised to consult the Employee Handbook for details on Religious Observation Policies.
  • Faculty members who miss classes for any reason, including for religious observance in accordance with the Employee Handbook, work with division chairs to assure that the classes are conducted and coursework carried on during such absence.