Class Meetings and Attendance
- Class attendance is required.
- If you are going to miss class, let us know (using the CS559AH attendance form). Letting us know afterwards is better than nothing. If you are sick, please do not come to class.
Attending class (being physically and mentally present) is part of being “engaged” in the class.
Class attendance is required. It is my job to make sure that your time in class is well spent and worth it. It is your job to be there. Sometimes the value in a class experience may not be obvious to you. And sometimes, I’ll do something experimental which may fail. If you don’t feel like I am keeping up my side of this deal well enough for you to keep up yours, let me know.
However, if you are sick, you should not come to class (to avoid potentially infecting others). Please inform the course staff (see below). We will try to make accomodations for you.
If you know that you will miss a lot of classes, or do not intend to come to class “nearly all of the time”, please do not take the class. This class requires you to show up. If you know that you cannot (for example, if you know you will be traveling extensively to interview), you should not take this class.
Measuring attendance in class is challenging. It is basically on the “honor system” - if you miss a class, let us know.
If someone’s attendance and participation is perceived to be a problem, we will penalize them (see Grading (and late policy) (Engagement)). Generally, missing 2-3 classes is OK. More than that, we’ll need to discuss. We understand that it is impossible for everyone to be at every class (even the instructor misses some classes). Things happen – bad and good. You get sick, you need to go to a family reunion in honor of your grandmother’s 100th birthday, you need to go to Stockholm to collect a Nobel prize, your alarm clock breaks and you sleep through class…
If you are going to miss class, let us know. If you can’t tell us before, please tell us afterwards. Please use the CS559AH attendance form. Telling us why you are missing (or missed) class is optional. We will try to keep track of who comes to class, but, admittedly it’s an imperfect process. If we notice that you’re missing and you didn’t tell us, that’s not good.
The range of reasons people have for missing class is broad – and it’s difficult to judge what is “legitimate” or not. We won’t judge your reasons. At the end of the semester we will determine if your attendance was a problem. If it was, we may penalize you.
You cannot “make up” in-class classwork. In general, there is no way to “make up” what happens in class. Generally, you cannot make up an in-class experience (since you didn’t experience it!).
Please come on time! If you come late, you will disrupt your classmates. Please try to be on time.