General Procedures and Regulations

Attendance

No person is allowed to attend a class unless officially enrolled on a credit or non-credit basis with the appropriate
fees paid. Students who attend, participate and strive to complete course requirements without formal enrollment
will not receive credit for their work.
There is no university-wide regulation requiring class attendance. However, attendance is an essential and intrinsic
element of the educational process. In any course in which attendance is necessary to the achievement of a clearly
defined set of course objectives, it may be a valid consideration in determining the student's grade. It is the
responsibility of the instructor to define the policy for attendance at the beginning of the course.
REPORTING NON-ATTENDANCE. In compliance with federal regulations governing financial aid and veterans
education benefits, instructors are required to report students who stop attending or who have never attended
class. After the first week of classes, through the middle of the term of instruction, instructors who identify a nonattending student should notify their departmental office. Upon receiving a report of non-attendance, departmental
representatives are encouraged to initiate an administrative drop.
Attendance is defined as physical attendance or participation in an academically-related activity, including but not
limited to the submission of an assignment, an examination, participation in a study group or an online discussion.
Instructors who do not take attendance may utilize key assessment points (e.g. projects, papers, mid-term exams,
and discussions) as benchmarks for participation.
DROP FOR NON-ATTENDANCE. Students may be dropped from a course for non-attendance by a departmental
administrative drop after the fourth class period, or the fifth class day of the term of instruction, whichever occurs
first.
CLASS NOTES AND UNIVERSITY SUPPLIED MATERIALS. As a condition of continued course enrollment and
allowed class attendance, a student will refrain from commercializing notes of class lectures and university-supplied
materials, by direct sale or by contract with a third party or otherwise, without the express written permission of
the instructor. Students may be removed from a class only after a hearing in the department or school, as
described in the Academic Freedom for Students at Michigan State University, Article 2.4.
FIELD TRIPS. Field trips involving absence from classes must be authorized in advance by the dean of the college
in which the course is given. The cost of field trips which are part of organized courses of instruction must be borne
by the participating students and are additional to the usual course fees.

Final Examination Policy

During the final week of each fall and spring semester all courses shall meet for one 2-hour period. The Final
Examination Policy and Schedule is available at www.reg.msu.edu/ROInfo/Calendar/FinalExam.asp. During summer
sessions, final examinations are scheduled in the last class sessions. This period should be used for examination,
discussion, summarizing the course, obtaining student evaluation of the course instruction, or any other
appropriate activity designed to advance the student's education. If an instructor requires a written report or takehome examination in place of a final examination, it shall not be due before the final examination period scheduled
for that course. Exceptions to this paragraph may be approved by the department or school chairperson, or in a
college without departments, by the dean.

In the event that a final examination is deemed appropriate by the instructor, it may not be scheduled at any time
other than the date and hour listed in the Final Examination Policy and Schedule. Any deviations from the final
examination schedule must be approved by the Office of the Registrar based on the recommendation of the
assistant/associate dean of the college responsible for the course offering.
No student should be required to take more than two examinations during any one day of the final examination
period. Students who have more than two examinations scheduled during one calendar day during the final
examination period may contact the Academic Student Affairs Office in their colleges for assistance in arranging for
an alternate time for one of the three examinations.
The final examination schedule shall be systematically rotated in an effort to distribute the 2-hour final examination
periods from semester to semester equally. This will also apply to common final examinations.
Faculty members shall schedule office hours during the final examination period (or in some other way attempt to
make themselves accessible to their students) as they do in the other weeks of the semester.
Common final examinations are scheduled in certain courses with several class sections. In case of a conflict in
time between such an examination and a regularly scheduled course examination, the latter has priority. The
department or school giving the common examination must arrange for a make-up examination.
A student absent from a final examination without a satisfactory explanation will receive a grade of 0.0 on the
numerical system, NC on the CR-NC system, or N in the case of a course authorized for grading on the P-N system.
Students unable to take a final examination because of illness or other reason over which they have no control
should notify the associate deans of their colleges immediately.
For information on other examinations, see the Undergraduate Education and Graduate Education sections of this
catalog.