Heather Mangan

The Students’ Association (SA) and Academic Senate are forming a committee to discuss what type of absence policy, if any, SDSU needs.

The decision to form the committee follows several weeks of work by the SA to develop a resolution encouraging the discussion of an absence policy.

At the Nov. 22 SA meeting, the senate passed a resolution that was presented to Academic Senate the following day. The resolution stated that the SA would support the creation of some type of policy.

The resolution was a revision of an original policy that SA senators presented to the Academic Senate Oct. 25. The senate didn’t respond well to the original resolution, so SA President Amanda Mattingly vetoed it and worked with other senators to write another.

“We’re trying to keep the resolution open as not to be too specific because we aren’t completely sure of the end result we are desiring,” said Kristin Olsen, a senator from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and co-writer of the revised resolution.

Academic Senate chairman Joel Hefling said the new version is more mature and easier to work with.

“I was please to see the students wanting to advance on an issue that directly impacts them,” he said.

The two senates decided to form a committee that will discuss and research the issue. The committee will also look at the various aspects of absences such as what policies instructors have, why students miss class, how much it happens, how the students feel about a policy, etc.

“The committee maybe meeting for sometime because they have so many issues to address,” Olsen said.

The committee will be made up of senators from Academic Senate and SA as well as non-traditional students. Hefling said it is important to have non-traditional students on the committee because they often have to miss class because of work or problems with their children.

Olsen said it is important to have senators and instructors from a wide range of departments on the committee. It is also important for instructors and students to work together on this because it will be easier to find a solution that fits both groups, she said.

Hefling said the ultimate policy would answer all the questions.

“In the ideal world, we would come up with a policy that all faculty would agree with,” he said. “That’s probably not going to happen. There is so much there that we can’t keep track of.”

The current policy regarding absences say that students with university excused absences, such as for a conference or an athletic event, will have equality opportunity for assignments, tests and quizzes as those that were in the class. Absences that are not university excused may de dealt in whatever matter the instructor feels is appropriate.

#1.885566:3029201090.jpg:attendancepolicy.jpg:This Friday geography class was missing some students.:Jerry Smith