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Professor Fighs for Say on Student Absences
By Hans P. Johnson
At Indiana’s Ball State University, student government officials and administrators turned their attention to campus policies on bereavement absences after students complained that the rules varied by course. Last fall these leaders put the finishing touches on a revised bereavement policy that permits student absences for various reasons and sets up a student referee to resolve any disputes with professors. Yet at least one faculty member protested, alleging that such deal making usurps the faculty members’ role as academic decision makers.
"This is fundamentally a matter of ‘who decides?’" says John Rouse, a professor of political science at Ball State. He concedes that his colleagues "are somewhat jaded about grandmothers dying—always at exam time," which may yield a degree of bias against allowing missed classes late in the semester. Yet Rouse’s stance on principle has kept up debate on the policy, despite its approval by the university senate.
"Professors make policies on class absences," Rouse points out. "Academic freedom permits them to determine absence policies." At most campuses, he adds, people such as student referees, who are not members of the faculty, "do not make academic policy."
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