By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee has returned a proposed Class Absence Policy to its Grading Committee for further revision and simplification.

The action, taken at the FSEC's Sept. 12 meeting, complies with a request by William Baumer, chair of the Grading Committee and professor of philosophy, who said the move could address concerns about the policy raised by senators at the May Faculty Senate meeting.

The senate did not vote on the proposal at that meeting due to a lack of a quorum. However, those in attendance debated the issue, somewhat contentiously, with many insisting the policy was too rigid about what are considered "reasonable" absences.

Baumer noted that there are conflicting sides to the issue. One side is that the policy should be simpler and briefer. The other side, which he said he and most members of the Grading Committee agree with, is that "there is no single and decent understanding of what constitutes a reasonable absence policy," and therefore it is necessary to spell out all the criteria.

He said that committee member Judith Adams-Volpe has revised the way in which some of the criteria are stated, "removing the enumerated laundry list of faculty responsibilities, and turning that into a briefer, but fairly comprehensive paragraph."

The revision covers, Baumer said, "what we have been given to understand…are really serious issues." For example, halfway through the course an instructor announces there will be an exam on Sunday afternoon and if students are not there, they will receive an "F" on the exam, and an "F" in the course.

"That seems to us to be anything but appropriate," Baumer said.

"At least what we'd like to have is a clear warning up front that these are the policies a course has," that they be included in a written syllabus, and absent that, "no faculty member can penalize a student for failure to attend, including failure to participate in exams."

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Electrical Engineering, noted that an important point in the issue is the question of the syllabus. "That is senate policy and I think we should enforce it," he said.

In other business, the FSEC also asked the Grading Committee to review the senate's standards for reasonable academic progress to a baccalaureate degree.

Baumer outlined for senators the history of the current policy used to review students' progress toward the degree, which went into effect with the 2000-2001 academic year.

According to the policy, all courses taken, including those with grade of "R" (resigned) or "I" (incomplete) are considered as courses attempted, but not successfully completed, and are counted against the total number of courses students are required to have.

For example, if a student has 30 credit hours, he or she would have been expected to have completed successfully 50 percent of the courses attempted. If a freshman attempted 10 courses, but resigned from five and had an incomplete in the sixth, that student failed to complete the requirement.

"So the question that came up was, do we want to enforce rigidly the inclusion of both 'Rs' and 'Is' in the courses-attempted count with the understanding that they would then count as being not successfully completed?" Baumer asked.

"The concern was that if this was done, we would lose 500-600 undergraduates—about 5 percent—that would be dismissed for unsatisfactory academic progress."

Baumer said he was concerned because the rule requiring these levels of progress is relatively recent. So students who began at UB in 1998 expecting to graduate in 2002 "would have been under the impression for at least two of the years…that they could take 'Rs' in courses with essentially no risk.

"And worse, they may well have been advised (by a faculty member) to take a number of 'Rs'," he said.

Baumer noted that for this academic year, courses in which students have received "Rs" and "Is" have not been included in the total number of courses attempted.

But, he said, the policy should be modified in the future.

"We're going to have to count the 'Rs.' It can reasonably be argued that the 'Is' are courses that are still undetermined, that these are not, therefore, courses that ought to be considered as not successfully completed," he said. "They should probably not be counted either way…they're still open."

Charles Fourtner, professor of biological sciences, urged that courses in which students receive "Rs" not be counted in the total number of courses attempted.

Fourtner called "Rs" "a powerful advising tool" used by faculty members in the hard sciences.