Handbook

LATE WORK AND ABSENCES

There is no Departmental policy on allowing late work. Practice varies from considerable toleration to rigid systems, e.g., maximum of one late paper per term, regardless of cause; grade lowered one letter per day; late work failed or not accepted at all. Typically the GTAs adopt strict policies, which are strongly supported by the Director of Composition. Both faculty and GTAs should make their written policies clear and specific at the beginning of each semester.

There is no Departmental policy regarding penalties for class absences, though individual instructors often lower course grades after, say, three absences accumulate. Instructors should know who participates in the life of the class and who does not, and should announce any consequences at the beginning of the semester.

It is Departmental policy, however, that courses should not be reduced to a series of examinations and papers. While a class includes formal examinations and writing assignments, certainly, its life is the day-to-day exchange of ideas, the ongoing conversation about literature and language.