Thur, 31st Aug 2017, 12:35 Re: Welcome to EE306

My students,

I thought that my email to the class last night was clear, but apparently
not, or some students are not reading my email carefully.  I would rather
err on the side of spamming all of you than have some students miss
discussion session this week.

As is the case with any email I get from a student that I think other
students will benefit from, I forward it and my response to the class.

A students writes:


> Hi,
>
> My name is ************** and I have a discussion session tomorrow this
> Friday, September 1st.
> Is there a form to fill out to request absenteeism for tomorrow? since we
> can observe the religious holiday, "Eid Al-Adha."
>
> Thank you,
> <<name withheld to protect the student who did not understand my email>>


So, two things are relevant here:

1. There is no form to fill out to request absenteeism.  I never take
attendance.  In my view, you are now college students and deserve to be
treated that way.  You are responsible, not me, for deciding whether to
come to class or discussion section, or not.  I will tell you that the
purpose of class and discussion session is to help you learn, so if you
don't come, you are usually putting yourself at a disadvantage.  My experience
from 50 years of teaching is not coming to class and/or discussion section
is a prescription for disaster.  But in my class you get to decide how to
allocate your time.

2.  I thought I spelled it out pretty clearly in my email last night that
if you are scheduled for tomorrow's (Friday) discussion and you wish to
observe Eid, you should try to get to one of today's (Thursday) discussion
sessions.  My TAs go over the same stuff on Thursday and Friday so it is
much better to go to one today than miss out this week.  If that is not
possible, please let me know and I will schedule an extra discussion session
on Sunday.


I will make it a practice to accomodate all religious observances throughout
the semester.

Good luck this semester.

Yale Patt