Case 8: Job Candidates
Class Absence Excuse Discussion, ECE400, Spring 2012
A course consists in one lecture per week, for a total of 15 weeks. Student A asks to be excused from 1 of these 15 weeks because of a job interview. Student B asks to be excused from 6 of these 15 weeks because he has 6 job interviews. Student C asks to be excused from 10 of these 15 weeks because he has 10 job interviews. Student D asks to be excused from 14 of these 15 weeks because he has 14 job interviews.
- Shicheng Guo, Response
- Student A, I would allow as long as the instructor is notified at least a day before, as interviews are usually scheduled at least a day in advance. Students B, C, and D I would be very skeptical of, but I would allow if they could bring solid proof that they had an interview at the exact same time as class. Seeing as this class is the same time and same day of every week, the probability that an interview be scheduled at the exact time for so many weeks in a row is just not plausible.
- Artyom Melanich, Response
- I would accept it once. For the others I would do some kind of extra credit opportunity for missing a lecture, so I make sure they spend that hour doing the class work. To the students who are planning to miss more that 5 lectures I would suggest to reschedule their interviews and plan in advance, announce in the policy that this class has zero tolerance of the excuses like job interviews.
- Cody Cusic, Response
- I would accept Student A's case to miss class, as a lot of us are going to have Job Interviews this semester as most of us are entering the workforce soon. Student B would have to show proof in some way that they actually do have interviews at that time. This could be a printed copy of the Scheduled Interviews from CCO Express, or a piece of paper from the company that they were interviewing with if it is an off-campus interview. The piece of paper could be a possible reimbursement form or any other form that is authentic proof that they were not able to attend the lecture. Student C should only be approved if they can prove that those were the only times that they were able to attend the interview and they are not just scheduling every interview in the time of the lecture period, just so they don't have to attend lecture. Student C should also have to do extra papers, possibly over the topic of the lecture that they missed to compensate for missing the lecture. Student D does not have an acceptable excuse. This is a participation class, and they are not participating.
- Seth Strege, Response
- I would accept the excuses for both students A and B, but not for students C and D. Missing more than 6 of the 15 classes is absurd. It is also highly unlikely that the only time for any job interview is during this specific class. In order to prove that students A and B are telling the truth I would require some type of documentation from the interviewer.
- Zhanibek Bekmurat, Response
- I would not accept any of these cases. Since the excuse is the same for everyone in order to be fair all of them should or should not be excused. In my case, I would not have given permission to any of them.
- Upsham Dawra, Response
- The class times are set before the semester even starts, and the job interviews are scheduled later. Also, every company understands if you tell that that you have an unmissable class at 12:30pm (well within college hours), and they are always willing to work out a schedule. Seeing this, I would not excuse any of the students; they should adjust their interviews to their class timings, not the other way around.
- Keegan McGraw, Response
- This certainly requires some discretion on the part of the professor. A singular interview during the class hour may be unavoidable but 14 interviews on 14 of the 15 days is a bit absurd. The student should be able to plan interviews around his class schedule in almost all situations. Overall I believe that absences are not excused for any reason other than emergency or health concerns and even those have a level of complexity to them.
- Han Byul Park, Response
- I don't think missing 14 out of 15 is possible. How can someone get 14 interviews all on the day and time of the class. I would think 1 to 3 interviews are possible but if more than that I would be very suspicious. However, if the student can still provide a valid proof. I would excuse him.
- Zachary Smith, Response
- This isn't excusable, any company will work with you to get an interview that you can actually attend. If you tell a company that you have classes from x to y times, and you have a class at z time that you absolutely cannot miss, they will work with you. I've had some classes allow one absence for interview purposes if you provide documentation (such as an email where the interview was scheduled), that's the professors choice if they wish to allow this.
- Craig Lechlitner, Response
- I think 1-2 absences for job interviews would be acceptable, but not more. Although companies will try to work around classes, this is not always possible (such as an on-site interview in another state). Professors should understand that the purpose of college is to help students find employment and not penalize students for interviews. However, it is unreasonable to have 6+ interviews that must take place during one particular class, so I would only excuse the first 2 interviews for students B, C, and D, but not the rest.
- Stephen Zabrecky, Response:
- Course outcome 2, as stated in the syllabus, is “an awareness of skills necessary to achieve success in the workplace.” Interviews are an active evaluation process of a student’s ability to achieve success in the workplace with the skills they have developed throughout their college career. Given the nature of ECE 400, 1 to 2 excuses absences should be given on presentation of a company letter confirming that they attended the interview (these are really easy to get and nearly every company will write one if asked). For 3 to 5 interviews (statistically unlikely but still probable for a once a week class) an excused absence should be granted after the following has been fulfilled: An company note stating the candidate did attend the interview is presented to the professor.
The student agrees to write a 2 - 3 page paper about who the company was, why they wanted to work there, which techniques worked and which ones didn’t, etc... (optional but a neat idea): The paper is posted on the course wiki for other students to read. This will give some practical insight and tips to anyone who might be looking to work for that, or a similar, company. For 6 or more interviews, no additional excused absences should be given to the student.
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