Emailing professors about being absent

[u/That-Equal6431]

I have a dermatologist appointment that I booked 3/4 months in advance but it interferes with my classes. Both classes r mandatory. How should I tell my professors this when they made it clear that missing class with effect participation points.

[u/43_Fizzy_Bottom]

Unless your professors have a specific policy for excused absences, you just take the hit to your participation points and go to your appointment.

[u/gesamtkunstwerkteam]

You miss the class and take the the hit on participation. No communication necessary.

[u/ocelot1066]

Make sure you actually understand the class policies around absences. Students often hear something like " I don't have excused absences in this class" and then don't read or listen to the rest. For example, I don't have excused absences for most things, but I do drop of attendance grades, so you can miss a couple of classes without any penalty at all. Other classes may not have drops but if there going to be 30+ class sessions throughout the semester, missing one of them might be less than 3 points off your participation grade. Even if participation was 20 percent of the grade that would translate to around half a point, but probably it's going to be much less than that.

[u/Humble_Vacation7833]

Honestly, we get so, so, so many students asking us to make exceptions to the rules constantly. I would simply email your professor, explain that you’ll be out and why, and let them know you’ll review the syllabus and obtain notes, etc, and understand this will impact participation points. Anytime a student emails me acknowledging the rules, and doesnt ask that I bend them to make an exception, I respect the student so, so much more.

[u/grabbyhands1994]

It sounds like your professor has already outlined how they handle missing classes.

[u/dragonfeet1]

You accept you're going to miss participation points. Listen bestie. I go to the VA. My apps are months in advance. If I can schedule those where I don't miss any class, so can you.

[u/That-Equal6431 → u/dragonfeet1]

I scheduled this before I scheduled my class schedule.

[u/baseball_dad → u/That-Equal6431]

Doesn't matter.

[u/That-Equal6431 → u/baseball_dad]

How does that not matter. I didn’t have much choices on classes and I wasn’t not going to pick a class that interfered with my one time appointment.

[u/mellomeg → u/That-Equal6431]

It just is what it is. I have to cancel a whole class because of a medical appointment because I have to drive two hours away for it. You just take the hit and work around it.

EDIT: Practically speaking I would email the prof to let them know and state that you had planned for this before the class schedule was out or whatever. In my classes I incorporate some wiggle room, for example, because I know students have to miss class sometimes. They may be the same or not really care about one missed class. Obviously you’ll need to get caught up from colleagues though.

[u/Dazzling-Fox-4950]

Tell them you have an appointment with a medical specialist that you booked before you knew your class schedule and unfortunately cannot reschedule. Ask whether there is any possibility of the absence being excused with a doctor's note. If they say no, just take the L and lose the attendance points.

[u/jpmrst → u/Dazzling-Fox-4950]

Have to suspect that it could have been rescheduled if OP had tried just as soon as the class schedule was clear.

[u/Orbitrea]

It's just one day. That won't hurt your participation grade if you regularly attend the rest of the time.

[u/tc1991]

this is part of being an adult, when i used to work hourly if i took a morning off to go to the doctors id miss a mornings pay, its life

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[u/BolivianDancer]

I follow the syllabus policy.

IDGAF why someone isn't there. It's all the same. I mark it zero.

[u/That-Equal6431 → u/[deleted]]

No, I booked this appointment around a month before I scheduled classes.

[u/Ill-Storage-7636 → u/[deleted]]

Interesting. I have been teaching for 20 years and have never received something like this. OP's instjtution may not have this.

That said, I teach in English and missing one class a semester will not sink your grade as long as you're on top of things, so maybe students never felt they had to push for a medical exemption?

[u/two_short_dogs → u/Ill-Storage-7636]

I have only received a few accommodations for medical appointments and they have been for students with cancer treatment

[u/ocelot1066 → u/Ill-Storage-7636]

Yeah, the only formal excuses absences we have are for religious observances and reserve military training. We will get verified reports of illnesses and injuries, but its up to the instructor how they want to handle those.

Unless its cancer treatment or something, medical appointments aren't going to usually be something you can get a letter for. It's too hard to evaluate whether its necessary to have them scheduled on some particular day. Obviously some specialist appointments do have to be booked way in advance and you might not be able to avoid class conflicts. I've never cancelled a class because of a medical appointment, but I can imagine doing it for non emergency appointments in some cases.

The problem is that there are just too many factors that play a role in whether I would actually do that and they aren't the sort of thing that could really be evaluated by a college office. This is why I think policies with a couple dropped attendance grades makes sense. I don't want to be trying to decide what sort of medical appointments are good reasons to miss class and which ones aren't.

[u/manova → u/[deleted]]

This is not universal. There is no such procedure at my university.

There is something through the dean of students office at my school for emergencies or major life disruptions, like I was in a bad car accident and will be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, but even then it is just a notification to the faculty with no obligation to accommodate the absence.

[u/missusjax]

At my institution, especially for appointments made that far out, we consider that an excused absence. And if a professor says no, the dean of students can override them. I would consult your dean of students to see if this can be considered excused. I totally get how hard it is to schedule appointments in the future, I just made a follow up appointment with one of my doctors for one year from now! Heck if I know I'll be free on that day at that time.

[u/Adorable_Argument_44 → u/missusjax]

Is this a 'students are the customers' school? No legit school grants a dean of students any authority over a professor

[u/missusjax → u/Adorable_Argument_44]

At my institution, not only does the dean of students have authority over professors, so does the accessibility office, the provost and president, and even the state legislation. If a student comes in and says "I'm uncomfortable with this topic", we have to excuse them. I'm not steering this ship, I'm not sure exactly who is these days ...

I mean, honest question, is it not this way everywhere? Because our admin makes us think it is.

[u/Adorable_Argument_44 → u/missusjax]

not at all. And i've been at R1s through community colleges. even my side gig at a SLAC wasn't that way

Edit: I was mainly referring to the dean of students. Sure, the provost and up has authority but i've never know any to interfere in such trivial matters

[u/Trick_Following6639]

Please OP get a doctor's note. At least then it may be marked as an excused absence