An absent policy

For the devotees of many religions, the first month of school brings not only the celebration of renewed friendships, but also some of the most holy days of the year.

Perhaps in the last few weeks you have noticed several students missing from your courses. While some may have simply slept in, some were observing a religious holiday. For those who had to miss class because of a religious holiday, they know that in most classes, a simple email to a professor a week in advance is sufficient. Missing a precept normally means attending another precept earlier or later in the week. Missing a seminar can mean a short response paper instead. There are even professors who go above and beyond by holding extra class sessions or extending office hours for affected students. Nevertheless, the presence of some faculty who knowingly or otherwise make it unduly difficult for students to keep up with their coursework when they are absent for holidays makes the lack of formal rules an unfortunate oversight.

Some students have been asked to write six-page papers because they had to miss one meeting of a seminar — a task which takes far longer than the three hours of a seminar period. Others have been told that "if you cannot make up the class by going to another precept or lab, you will be penalized as if you had missed the class without excuse." There have even been a few cases of students feeling that because they were going to miss a class in a particular course, they were not welcome to take that course at all.

The problem in part stems from the fact that the University does not maintain a list of "official holidays" or a consistent set of rules by which students are supposed to make up missed course hours and missed coursework. In fact, religious excused absences are not mentioned at all in either the "Academic Regulations" section of the Undergraduate Announcement or in "Rights, Rules and Responsibilities." Instead, the absence policy is loosely defined by a yearly email the Dean of the College sends out, which includes a list of major holidays that professors should be on the lookout for. This list, however, is not inclusive and fails to define what constitutes proportional makeup assignments. Furthermore, students are never informed about how to be excused from class or reschedule tests, quizzes or written work.

We believe the University should stop dealing with religious absences in an "under-the-table" fashion and should formalize the process. First, religious absences should be mentioned as a justified excuse for missing class in the "Academic Regulations" as it is at many of our peer institutions. Second, the Dean of the College should create a policy for students and faculty to define what a proportional makeup assignment looks like and how students should reschedule test and assignments.

No student should be forced to choose between religious observance and academic success in any class offered at Princeton. While a vast majority of professors already embody Princeton's commitment to diversity and inclusiveness in their policies, the actions of a few require a change for the sake of the entire University community.