Academic Policies & Procedures

Attendance

All students must attend the courses in which they are enrolled. Discipline and responsibility are fundamental to the practice of dentistry. A policy requiring attendance ensures that each student will obtain maximum exposure to available lectures and clinical and laboratory experiences. Students are expected to take advantage of each opportunity to learn as a demonstration of their responsibility to their patients and their commitment to the highest professional standards.

Students will receive five personal days per semester that they can use at their discretion to miss a day of class or clinic. When using a personal day, students must log on to the attendance data bank on the IUSD Intranet and complete the section titled Notification for Use of Personal Day. Students accept the responsibility for learning what information they missed, including course content and impending assignments, while taking a personal day. Students are not excused from any class work submitted or assigned on dates during which they used personal days. Except for medical emergencies, severe illness, death of a family member, required court appearances, or military obligations, students are prohibited from missing class on dates scheduled for any type of assessment. When confronted with any of the conditions noted above, students must present official detailed documentation to the assistant dean for student affairs, who will rule whether or not the use of a personal day is warranted.

The use of personal days to avoid specific classes or clinics or as study days prior to exams is strictly prohibited and considered an abuse of the policy. Similar to the Family and Medical Leave Act policies for employees, students must document the reason for the use of their personal days when they use four or more days consecutively. Fourth-year students in good standing can use up to 15 days of unused personal days accumulated over their first three years of study for professional development activities such as interviewing for graduate programs, private practice opportunities, externships, and professional conferences.

All abuses of the policy will be considered fraudulent behavior, and grievances will be filed with the Student Professional Conduct Committee by the assistant dean for student affairs. Cutting classes will result in the loss of a personal day, and when students miss class without using a personal day, instructors have the right to give a grade of zero (0) for any scheduled or unscheduled quiz or assignment missed by the student. Repeat offenders will be considered for suspension or dismissal.

In cases when students exhaust all five personal days in a semester and need additional days off, the assistant dean has the option of allowing students to use unearned personal days according to the following guidelines:

• Students must present official detailed documentation of an illness, legal issue, or death that requires their absence from school.
• The additional personal days will be borrowed from the upcoming year.
• The assistant dean for student affairs may grant no more than five additional days of personal time per semester.

When students use more than 15 personal days in an academic year, they may either request a leave of absence or meet with the Progress Committee, which will consider whether or not they should be promoted, retained, or dismissed.

In cases when a student exhausts 15 personal days in a semester or 20 personal days in an academic year and still needs additional days off, the student must take a leave of absence.