Attendance in Composition Classes
According to the Faculty Handbook of Policies and Procedures, "Students enrolled in freshman or sophomore level courses numbered 1000 or 2000 may during a semester miss no more than twice the number of lectures, recitations, laboratory sessions, or other regularly scheduled class activities that would normally be scheduled during a week" (III-13). In other words, students who miss more than four days of a TR composition class or more than six days of a MWF composition class are subject to automatic failure. It is up to the teacher to decide if a grade will be lowered after a set number of absences. Many comp teachers allow two TR and three MWF absences before grades are automatically lowered.
Note that the Faculty Handbook makes no distinction between excused and unexcused absences. However, students who participate in official university activities will be excused for such participation, and will be allowed a reasonable opportunity to make up missed class work and examinations. In most cases, the instructor has the prerogative in deciding how much leeway (if any) to give students for missing classes. In all cases, we advise students to save any "allowed" absences for extreme emergencies--those rare occasions (illnesses or emergencies in the immediate family)--on which class attendance would be unwise and unexpected. Since student participation is a large factor in the day-to-day function of most composition classes, attendance should be considered mandatory. Note that frequent tardiness may also harm your grade.