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I have a 60 hour work-week due to work/school/commuting/homework, so I've had to make sacrifices -- usually this is attendance of mindless gen-ed classes. I'm worried that the university may revoke my degree if this comes to light.

Described in the answers to this question, a university can revoke a degree if it is found that the student broke the code of conduct during the course of the program. My university's code of conduct specifies that it is up to the instructor to determine attendance policies, and AFAIK none of the classes I have skipped had clauses that resulted in a failure of the class due to poor attendance (just grade penalties). Despite this, would it be unprecedented for the university to claim I was in violation of an attendance policy anyway and revoke my degree? I'm worried the school may see this as an insult and retaliate.

If it matters which classes and how severe, I skipped 50% of Physics II and only attended 4 days of Calc II (test days). I plan to do the same with Chem I this semester. I was not at risk of failing the courses. I am pursuing a bachelors degree of Computer Science at a US university. I have never broken any laws or cheated. I am in good academic standing and on-track to graduate at the end of the semester.

Drew
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    Some (government) funding in some countries is linked to attendance as well as grades / performance - once a threshhold is passed then a visa can be revoked which means effectively out of the course... – Solar Mike Sep 14 '18 at 04:32
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    What’s “gen-ed” and in what way is it “mindless”? – Konrad Rudolph Sep 14 '18 at 09:16
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    @KonradRudolph non-major classes, and mindless in the sense that I can show up 4 days of the semester and not flunk out of the course :P – Drew Sep 14 '18 at 09:56
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    @Drew Just to clarify: are you saying you’d not learn anything useful even if you attended? Or that you can wiggle your way through the exams despite not attending because the exams are lax? Because that impacts the answer: the minors I took formed an integral part of my education, I’d regret to have missed them (extenuating circumstances notwithstanding). – Konrad Rudolph Sep 14 '18 at 09:59
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    @KonradRudolph Would rather not start a political discussion over what's valuable and what's not -- off-topic form original question anyway. – Drew Sep 14 '18 at 10:09
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    @Drew Fair enough, my previous comment was wrong to suggest that this would change an answer (this was accidental, promise). It would change whether I’d recommend you drop these courses but that’s indeed off-topic and you seem to have your mind made up. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 14 '18 at 10:12
  • It would depend on the university. Go to class is a good indication of what will be on the exams. – paparazzo Sep 14 '18 at 10:37
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    @KonradRudolph pretty sure "gen-ed" stands for "general education", the kind of non-major course that universities make students take for breadth requirements. – Allure Sep 14 '18 at 12:52
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    When I was in school I had several friends who would only show up to class on required days (test, presentations, etc). Unless the instructor communicates that attendance is required, it isn't. – GreySage Sep 14 '18 at 15:24
  • How do you imagine the university finding out you skipped classes? – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 14 '18 at 22:46
  • If you don't know whether or not if "classes I have skipped had clauses that resulted in a failure of the class due to poor attendance"... what can anyone else tell you without a copy of your syllabus? – Mazura Sep 15 '18 at 01:40
  • FWIW, I was in your situation when I was in college. I worked a lot and took way too many classes. I think if I had it to do over again, I would have just taken on more debt and lightened my load during college. It might be worth cutting back work hours now in favor of school hours. You'll have plenty of time to work when you graduate and it'll probably be both more interesting and remunerative than what you're doing now – Paul Sep 15 '18 at 02:10
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    Do you mean "withhold" or "revoke"? It's not "revoke" if they haven't awarded the degree yet. – smci Sep 16 '18 at 03:02
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    As a bit of side note, have you considered trying to enroll in some online classes that don't require physical attendance? Particularly for gen. ed. classes? (You might even consider investigating if you can arrange to take them through another college and have the credits transferred.) – jpmc26 Sep 16 '18 at 09:08
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    @jpmc26 I've taken a few, and the workload of online classes is usually greater than that of in-person classes. The frequency of assignments is much higher, and there are weekly mandated discussions (versus showing up to an in-person class and not saying a word). I'm guessing it's because online classes have to have more concrete evidence that they're teaching students, which is fine, but doesn't work out if you're trying to save time. As for transferring, I don't think the college is the problem -- the classes themselves aren't too difficult – Drew Sep 16 '18 at 17:03

3 Answers3

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It is part of the cultural norms of American universities that your attendance or lack thereof is an issue for each individual course instructor to pursue or not pursue as they choose. At my university the administration is involved precisely insofar as to have the following policy:

Students are expected to attend classes regularly. A student who incurs an excessive number of absences may be withdrawn from a class at the discretion of a professor.

This states the situation well: the administration empowers the instructor to penalize the student for poor attendance, including withdrawing them from the course. Thus whether and how your lack of attendance in a course is problematic is between you and the instructor of that course. You seem to be worried about attendance that is acceptable to the instructor -- more precisely, not resulting in failure or withdrawal -- but is somehow unacceptable to the university as a whole, since you write

Despite this, would it be unprecedented for the university to claim I was in violation of an attendance policy anyway and revoke my degree? I'm worried the school may see this as an insult and retaliate.

In a word: yes, this would be completely unprecedented and moreover implausible. First of all, how does the university even know about your attendance? Even if they somehow found out (maybe you write an editorial in your school paper advocating attending class as little as possible?!?) it would widely be viewed as a violation of the instructor's rights to penalize you for lack of attendance when the instructor did not. Finally, you speak of a degree being revoked which means that first you get it and then they take it away from you. Degrees are only revoked for the grossest forms of academic misconduct. It would be outrageous for a university to revoke a degree due to lack of attendance -- frankly, that would reflect very badly on them and would invite censure and possibly even legal action, as it seems manifestly unfair to conjure requirements retroactively.

Summing up: you should clear your attendance plans with each course instructor in advance. To do otherwise is really not safe, as you can see that e.g. my university (which is not so far away from yours) empowers me to withdraw a student for sufficiently poor attendance. If your attendance plan is okay with the instructor, it will be okay with everyone else too.

Pete L. Clark
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    Completely correct answer. For what it's worth, my (U.S.) university's policy regarding attendance is virtually identical to the one you've stated here. – reirab Sep 14 '18 at 19:07
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    At University I had many lecturers (UK) who were useless at lecturing and I was useless at mornings, but they wrote wonderful lecture notes, books, and practicals (and were mainly there because they were leaders in the field, but often had limited social skills, lovely as they were). I didn't attend those classes regularly and probably they liked the low attendance, too. Teaching is teaching, more power to them. It's important to stay in touch somehow, though, as there may be requirements for practicals, etc, you only hear about in lecturers, so you need friends to help you out occasionally. – Dannie Sep 14 '18 at 22:15
  • Early in my undergrad education, I had a Differential Equations lecturer who had terrible English skills (nor did I speak his native language). The lectures were an absolute waste. But out of respect, I attended class and spent the time teaching myself (referencing the textbook, taking notes, and effectively learning DE solo). It was the closest I could get to gaining anything from the lectures. In retrospect, I should have attended the lectures, and feigned paying attention, then taught myself after class. – ChuckCottrill Sep 15 '18 at 21:10
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Assuming you haven't been awarded a degree yet, you can't have your degree revoked.

As for whether the university can refuse to award you a degree because you didn't attend class - key point to note is that university isn't high school. University students are generally treated as adults, and adults are free to do what they want, including miss class. It comes down to whether you can meet the stated requirements for the course even if you miss class. If you can, then sure, go ahead. Missing class isn't the same as the situation in the question you linked - that involves cheating by not actually meeting the requirements, but giving the impression that you did.

Caveats: by not attending class,

  • Your lecturers can't write you recommendation letters since they have no impression of you.
  • You miss anything that's said in class, e.g. the lecturer might mention an interesting fact that's never examined for, but would've helped you five years in the future.
  • Some lecturers might have attendance requirements.
Allure
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  • This is under the assumption that I am awarded the degree (I am on track to graduate at the end of the semester). Sorry for not clarifying -- I will edit it into the question. – Drew Sep 14 '18 at 04:24
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    +1 Just to emphasize the key point -- you cannot lose your degree for violating a policy that doesn't exist. – cag51 Sep 14 '18 at 05:25
  • On the other hand, most employed adults will find that frequently not attending their jobs will definitely get them fired very quickly. That not attending the social functions of their friends will weaken the friendship. That not attending your daughter's dance recital is an easy way to end up sleeping on the couch and making your daughter cry. So I don't buy the whole "we treat them like adults in Universities" logic. All this means is "we encourage them to treat the university as an unimportant trifle without consequences". – zibadawa timmy Sep 14 '18 at 06:22
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    @zibadawatimmy I use that phrase to mean that the university treats the students as people who are capable of making decisions and taking responsibility for it, so e.g. if you miss class and fail, they're not going to let you take the next class on the way to the degree since you failed the prerequisite. But if you can miss class and still pass, more power to you. – Allure Sep 14 '18 at 06:29
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    @zibadawatimmy The comparision is unfair, as the "treat as adult" part means, that the university often declares the attendance as completely optional, relying on you to judge if you need to be there or not. Being not there and investing time in reading more books is a completedly viable option. A good reason may be a schedule, which makes it hard to be at the university, but allows for enough time to read about the topic. As an adult you should know, that you probably will need some of the lectures. On the other hand you should know, that you do not need 100%. – allo Sep 14 '18 at 08:13
  • @zibadawatimmy Missing your class sessions but still passing is a lot more like working remote: Depending on the boss (professor) and company (school) it might be completely fine, though their criteria will vary. At my job, for example, I literally never have to show up to work, as long as I still hit my targets. As an adult, I can weigh the pros and cons and make the decision to spend two weeks at home (miss two weeks of class) for something more important, and if I make up the (class)work, my boss doesn't care if I come in to the office. –  Sep 14 '18 at 16:45
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    This answer misses an important subtlety: Some university instructors do impose attendance requirements on their courses, either explicitly or implicitly through the including of "participation credit" or in-class quizzes and the like. Thus, it is entirely possible for a student to fail a class, despite meeting all other course requirements, because they did not attend class, or even because they missed more than a trivial number of classes. And if that class is a degree requirement, the student won't get the degree. – JeffE Sep 14 '18 at 18:14
  • I don't remember having taken a course with an attendance requirement - at most it was "participation is worth ___% of your grade". So you can still miss class. You'll get 0% for participation, but if the rest of your grade is strong enough, you'll still pass. – Allure Sep 14 '18 at 21:38
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    @Allure That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. My friend TAs a class where 4 absences is an automatic fail. It causes him no end of headaches. – Azor Ahai -him- Sep 14 '18 at 22:44
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    It might be worth noting that some universities or programs have their own attendance requirements. In the USA most law schools have fairly strict attendance policies they impose on the entire school because they are ...encouraged to do so by the ABA. – TimothyAWiseman Sep 15 '18 at 00:18
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    @Allure: As always, institutional practices vary widely. At my community college, it's required by the department that instructors enforce the max-4-absences-or-fail policy in all remedial courses (~100 sections per semester). – Daniel R. Collins Sep 15 '18 at 18:19
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FWIW, at all the service academies, attendance is mandatory.

For your specific college, if a professor makes it mandatory to attend and you don't than he can flunk you. If you need the class, than no degree.

You might like it, but that is likely how it would play out.

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