On the second day of classes returning from Winter Break, the Dean of Students Office sent a schoolwide email on January 5 with a notification of changes to the consequences for unexcused absences and new “bulk leave” REACH Requests for overnight gatherings of three or more students.
The new attendance policy announced by the Dean of Students Office responded to an increase in unexcused absences following the pandemic. With the goal of transitioning from individualized to standardized responses, the policy hopes to provide supportive interventions — such as spending three nights in a study hall at three unexcused absences — that rise in severity to include the removal of Dean’s Excuses for the term, Growth and Accountability Plans (GAPs), and potentially dismissal.
Following a meeting with the Faculty Advisory Committee in Fall Term, Susan Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, spoke on how the purpose of enforcing new absentee policies was a joint response by faculty to encourage students to attend class and reap the benefits of in-person learning following a long stretch of virtual learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There was school as you knew it, and there was Covid[-19] school, and now there’s this thing that’s not pre-Covid[-19] school, it’s a new kind of way of doing school… I don’t want to oversimplify it, but… showing up matters. I think when we were able to be online and do remote schooling, showing up mattered less, but we also lost all that human connection. Learning is a social process, we know from research that you learn better with others than if you sat in a room by yourself all year and just studied, so [we’re trying] to bring it back to that,” said Esty.
Rose Juma ’26 described how the new policy will help encourage students not to skip class, but also harshly punish students who accidentally miss class due to mistakes such as missing an alarm. Juma also commented on how the policy extends into other activities outside of class, such as All-School Meeting (ASM) and sports, and could help with punctuality.
“I’ve heard of a lot of people cutting class and it’s very casual nowadays, so I feel like the new policy is going to help with that… But for some students, if they sleep through the day, and miss several classes on a Monday schedule, that would be really bad. The school did take pretty drastic measures, but I think to some extent I think it’s important to go to class and stay on track. [The policy changes] forced me to consider being in class on time because some of my teachers are strict, so they’ll mark you tardy even if you’re a bit late, and that could add up… I’m more mindful to get to class and ASMs on time,” said Juma.
Jacob Kaiser ’24 referred to situations he has faced as a Senior. He mentioned conversations with his advisor and how the perceptions of cutting at Andover could see significant changes following this change.
“[My advisor] said that people often just try to avoid discomfort. When the attendance policy is pretty relaxed, you could miss so many classes and no one would say anything about it. The discomfort that you were avoiding was waking up in the morning to go to class. With this new policy in place, you’re avoiding discomfort in that you are trying to keep your freedom on Friday nights, you’re trying to avoid having a talk with your parents [about] getting a GAP or whatever the other repercussions might be. I do think that these policies were necessary, [and] I also think that they are going to impact the school in a positive way,” said Kaiser.
Similarly, Mario Calvo ’24 spoke on the possible effects that the new policy will have on students. In particular, Calvo noted that he believes fewer students are going to “cut” class as the consequences following each individual cut are greater.
“It seems a little bit weird to me, but at the end of the day, I think it’s important to have consequences for skipping classes because you’re here to learn… I definitely think it’s [going to] have some impact [on students] for sure, because now even with one or two slip-ups, in the long run, it’s going to prove to be costly. I think [the changes] are now going to make students more mindful of avoiding cutting classes… Now, ‘just a cut’ is going to eventually come back to bite you, and with the consequences being more substantial than before, I think it’s definitely something students are going to have to keep in mind,” said Calvo.
Esty commented on how the policy aims to help, not harm, students in realizing in times of need, there are options other than missing classes and other responsibilities. Instead, the policy was meant to emphasize receiving help and support with mental health and workload on campus.
“We just want to be really plain with students and adults that there are always options… because I think sometimes people get stuck and they just think, ‘Oh, well,’ and you’re racing so hard toward the finish line, and you realize that you may go across the finish line limping and in last place, but you didn’t have to do it that way… We want you to be well and learning and growing, so the idea behind dropping something or not getting Dean’s Excuses to go to an off-campus competition is not to hurt you, it’s to help someone who’s not managing all their responsibilities and commitments already to get a handle on it,” said Esty.
