Missing class means you will not pass. It is nothing to play around with. According to the attendance rules for the BMC classes which are recorded on most class syllabuses at the college, 6 absences are all that is allowed for classes meeting three times a week, 4 absences for those who meet twice a week, 2 absences for those only meeting once a week, and for summer classes, three absences for those meeting 5 times per week. Two are all that is allowed for those meeting four times a week.
Because missing class is no laughing matter, a student is considered tardy for class only 10 minutes after the class has started, and those can quickly pile up if one is not careful. That is not good considering being tardy three times equals an absence. To add to that, at 20 minutes late the student is counted as having just missed the class altogether. Many absences can cause a student to be kicked out of class.
There is only one way to get back into class. Last semester, according to Dr. Mattox, a student only had to send him an email explaining the reason why they were kicked out of a class, and he would let them back in once he approved the student’s excuse.
It is nothing like that this semester. Things are getting tighter. Now, a student must send Dr. Mattox an appeal form, located on BMC’s website, with the excuse for missing the classes written on it before they can be let back into class. The form must not only be signed by Dr. Mattox, but also the teacher of the class the student was removed from. Then, the form must finally be signed by Dr. Enzor. At that point, the student will finally be let back into class, but this is the last time they will have that option.
Last semester, too many students were taking advantage of the easy route to get back into classes before the policy was changed, and that is why it is stricter this year, according to Dr. Mattox. Imagine being the teacher, and the students failing for absences kept coming back in to class three or four times after being removed. That is why the rule was created: to make it harder to get back into class so that students think more before missing class.
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