Student Government Director of Athletics Melissa Hart discussed revising the University’s excused-absence policy at Monday’s Faculty Senate meeting so students would no longer be penalized for excused absences.”The current policy is unfair to the entire student body,” Hart said. “It doesn’t fully state what a valid reason for missing classes is or state what to do when students do have official excuses.”The proposed revision to PS-22, which states the University’s excused absence policy, will change the policy to make it clearer. SG is in full support of the resolution, Hart said.The revised policy would include a sentence requiring instructors to work with students who have valid excuses so they retain an “equal opportunity for success in class and are not penalized for having missed class with a valid reason.”The current policy statement is purposely made ambiguous, said Daniel Marsh, SG trial court judge who said he was speaking only on behalf of himself.”Because PS-22 is so complicated, students don’t bother going through the appeal process,” Marsh said. “They just drop the class.”The economics department has a no makeup exam policy in 2000-level courses, said Bob Newman, chairman of the economics department.Students with an official excuse are allowed to make up course work they missed by having selected questions from the final exam count as the exam they missed, Newman said.Making final exams count double to make up for missed exams punishes students in many cases, said Stacia Haynie, vice provost for Academic Affairs.”Economics decided PS-22 is a fair policy and would like to retain that policy,” Newman said.The proposed revision to PS-22 gives students involved in classes where excuses are not accepted as an option to still make up work, Marsh said.”Students who represent the University in great ways, such as members of the band and athletic teams, are negatively affected by this policy, and that is unfortunate,” Hart said.The Faculty Senate is scheduled to vote on recommending the revisions to PS-22 at the next meeting April 13.
 
 
 
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