First Class Mandatory

The First Class Mandatory attendance policy requires students to attend the first class session of a course with this designation to maintain enrollment in the course. The policy is included in the MBA Academic Policies Manual.

Bidding and registration for First Class Mandatory course sections works as with any other section. Students are responsible for knowing whether a course on which they bid is subject to the Mandatory First Class attendance policy. On the first day of class, the professor will take attendance. After the first class session, the professor will instruct the Registrar to drop students who did not attend the mandatory first class and to add, in the order in which they appear on the waiting list, students who did attend the mandatory first class.

Please be advised that the roster and waitlist will remain active for First Class Mandatory classes until just before the first session of class, and is subject to change as students have the ability to add, drop, or place themselves on the waitlist during this time.  However, when the first minute of the class session begins, the waitlist will disappear and students will no longer have the ability to add themselves into a First Class Mandatory class via self-service registration. From this point on, the Registrar's Office will maintain the waitlist and rely on information provided by the faculty member to manually administer course adds and drops. Students who are not promoted into the class will receive a 100% refund of any bid points used toward the course.

The Registrar’s Office will notify all dropped students, as well as those promoted into the class, by e-mail at the end of Add/Drop. Waitlisted students who cannot attend the first class session of a course designated as First Class Mandatory should drop the course immediately to reclaim 100% of the bid points spent to hold the waitlist position. Students who drop a waitlist position will always receive a full refund of their points spent to hold the position, regardless of the refund period in which the drop occurs.

Excused Absences

The following list of excused absences will be allowed by professors teaching courses marked as First Class Mandatory:

• Religious holiday
• Medical emergency
• Funeral attendance
• Natural disasters or other “acts of God.”

A professor’s discretion shall prevail in the event of other extenuating circumstances not listed above. To qualify as an excused absence, a student must contact the professor via e-mail prior to the first class session.