Many physical absences are excused in the sense that the faculty and the School expect you to miss class altogether, without a penalty to your grade, and to attend to another pressing matter. Reasons for such absences are:

• Birth or adoption of a student's child.
• Court summons or jury duty that cannot be postponed.
• Death or serious illness in the immediate family.
• Illness or medical needs of a child for whom the student is a primary caretaker.
• Observance of high religious days or due to religious beliefs.
• Personal illness, including quarantine or isolation due to COVID, mild symptoms causing a student to stay home in order to keep others healthy, emergencies, mental health, and appointments with health care providers that could not be scheduled at another time.
• Recruiting (can be up to 2 per class, and 6 per term; see below).
• Required military service.
• Wedding day of student or immediate family member.

Ordinarily in such circumstances, students should take time off—for instance, to rest up during an illness. In some cases, however, students may want to

1. participate in classes remotely, with camera on, using HBS’s hybrid classroom technology, or
2. observe classes remotely, with camera off, using HBS’s hybrid classroom technology.

Either choice is permitted. To be clear, you should not feel any pressure to attend class remotely when you are experiencing the circumstances listed above.

Two final notes apply:

• Remote attendance and participation may not be available for all class sessions, such as those taking place in Batten Hall and certain simulations/exercises.
• Although occasional excused absences will not negatively affect your grade, repeated excused absences could impair your ability to master a course’s material and therefore have a negative impact on your grade.

1. Determine whether your reason for being physically absent from the classroom qualifies for Remote Attendance and whether you will be available during your class time to attend remotely.

2. Prior to reporting your Remote Attendance, determine whether you will attend class with your camera on or off, according to the chart below, noting that your camera is required to remain that way for the full duration of the class session.

3. Report your Remote Attendance by selecting the appropriate reason in the dropdown menu and indicating "I will attend class remotely—Yes."

4. Review Student Technical Resources for Virtual Learning for tips and resources for using Zoom to access hybrid class sessions, and generate an approved Zoom virtual background before class. Plan to use the HBS Zoom background when you attend class remotely, with your first name written in all capital letters, for visibility by your faculty and scribe.

Remote Attendance & Camera Option	Eligibility	Participation	Grading Treatment
Attend remotely Camera on	Available for any physical excused absences from classroom	Eligible for participation in class	Receives credit for attending and eligible to participate as though you are in the physical classroom
Attend remotely Camera off	Available for any physical excused absences from classroom	Not eligible to participate in class	Does not receive credit for attending or participation, treated as excused absence for grading purposes
Does not attend remotely	Excused absences from classroom with no remote attendance Unexcused absences are not eligible for remote attendance	Does not participate in class	Does not receive credit for attending or participation, treated as an excused/unexcused absence for grading purposes

Unexcused absences occur when you are unable to be physically present in the classroom for a reason other than the ones listed above. Reasons for unexcused physical absences include:

• Conference
• Funeral of a non-family member
• Legal matters other than court summons or jury duty
• Other, to be used for any reason not expressly noted in this policy (e.g. board meetings, field work for cases writing)
• Recruiting in excess of the allotted number of excused recruiting absences per class and per term (see below)
• Travel disruption
• Vacation/travel
• Wedding day, other

A student with an unexcused physical absence is not permitted to participate in or observe class remotely. Unexcused absences have negative impacts on your grade.

You must notify your instructor(s) in advance of any absences when you will not be physically present in the classroom using the Student Absence and Remote Attendance Notification tool and by indicating whether you will—if permitted—participate in class remotely. You are required to select the reason that is most consistent with why you will not be present in class on that particular day. Misrepresenting the reason for or failing to appropriately report an absence could rise to the level of a violation of HBS Community Values and the HBS Honor Code and may result in disciplinary sanctions.

In case of an emergency absence where it is not possible to report the absence in advance of the class, you should contact attendance@hbs.edu and proceed with entering the absence in the system as soon as possible.

In addition to reporting absences, students who will be non-compliant with testing due to travel should complete the poll prior to going out of testing compliance.

You are eligible for up to 3 excused recruiting absences in Term 1 of the RC year. Thereafter, in Terms 2, 3, and 4 you will be permitted to take up to 6 excused recruiting absences per term when there is a recruiting need that cannot be accommodated on Job Search Days. For an excused recruiting absence, you must:

• Report the absence and include the name of the organization with which you are recruiting, the industry, the interview stage you are in, the date of the interview, and the reason the interview could not occur on a Job Search Day.

Important Notes for Students

• Excused Recruiting Absences are defined as any absence when you are not physically present in the classroom, even if you choose to attend class remotely.
• You may take no more than 1 excused recruiting absence in any one Term 1 RC course and in Data Science for Managers, if you are enrolled.
• You may take no more than 2 excused recruiting absences in any one required Term 2 RC course or EC long course.
• You may take no more than 1 excused recruiting absence in joint degree seminars, SIPs, EC short courses, or EC intensive courses that meet once a week.
• Excused recruiting absences do not carry over term to term.
• Individual faculty may opt to require an absence write-up in their course.
• Excused recruiting absences are not permitted for midterm and final exam sessions (see Absence from Exams).
• Excused recruiting absences are not permitted for the following sessions due to their unique format:
  • RC: FIELD Immersion, Inclusive Leadership
  • EC: Kickoff, IFCs, and Bridges
• Excused recruiting absences are valid for most recruiting activities related to securing a job offer including informational interviews, formal interviews and sell days, or fundraising for your startup.

Please see the MBA Recruiting Policies for more information, and reach out to MBA Career & Professional Development for help navigating the recruiting process.

Two or more consecutive days being excused or unexcused absences requires special action.

• If you must take multiple absences due to an emergency, medical condition, or a disability, you should meet with MBA Student & Academic Services as soon as possible to best balance your circumstances with the School's academic requirements.
• For two or more absences unrelated to an emergency, medical condition, or a disability, please contact attendance@hbs.edu.
• These absences should still be reported via the Student Absence & Remote Attendance Notification tool.
• You may be asked for documentation in support of your need to miss class.
• A pattern of absences with consistent failure to give proper notice and explanation can result in an involuntary withdrawal.

Both excused and unexcused absences can impact your grades and standing in the MBA Program. It is important to remember that while an absence may be excused, frequent excused absences can impact your class participation and your ability to master the content, and subsequently, your grades. The impact of absences may include:

• A lower course grade.
• A designation of No Credit for a course.
• Review by the Academic Performance Committee.
• Ineligibility for academic honors, the Dean's Award, some fellowships, and other privileges and forms of recognition and support at HBS.

Students who fail to satisfactorily complete course requirements due to unexcused absences or prolonged excused absences may receive an "Incomplete" or "No Credit.” Students receiving either designation must pursue a program of work, determined by the instructor(s), to convert the "Incomplete" into a final course grade, or the "No Credit" into the appropriate credits.

RC students who fail to receive credit for a required course must make up that credit before continuing into their second year. EC students who fail to get credit for a course may have insufficient credits for the award of the MBA degree.

As a rule, all MBA classes take place as scheduled even if other parts of the University are closed. MBA students are expected to attend class as usual. If you are notified of a modified attendance policy, you must still report the absence as indicated below or otherwise stated when notified about the emergency or school closing.

HBS is a largely residential campus, and MBA classes usually take place as scheduled, regardless of adverse conditions. Examples of emergencies that could disrupt classes include (but are not limited to):

• Severe weather conditions in which the Governor of Massachusetts declares a state of emergency (hurricane, tornado, severe snowstorm).
• Loss of power (electricity, heat, etc.) in classroom buildings.
• Disruption in the use of classroom facilities due to fire, bomb threat, or other emergency situations.

If such an event disrupts classes for a given day or time period, the MBA Program may announce a modified attendance policy, a modified schedule, or both.

• When declared a Modified Attendance Policy option will appear in the drop-down menu for students to use when reporting their absences.
• Students who live off-campus are advised to use their judgment about whether it is safe to travel to campus.
• Off-campus students who judge it unsafe to travel to campus may opt to attend class remotely or be absent from class. In either case, as per the policy above, their absence from the classroom should be reported. Absences for off-campus students due to a Modified Attendance Policy are excused, providing they are properly reported.
• Off-campus students who may be tardy should communicate directly with their faculty member.
• The Modified Attendance Policy does not apply to students who live on-campus. They are expected to be physically present in the classroom unless they otherwise have an absence reason as noted above.

If a modified schedule is announced (e.g., delayed start of classes, moving a class or classes to the next day, early end of classes, etc.), students will be notified through one or a combination of the following:

• Email from the MBA Program.
• "Alert" on myHBS (which will appear at the top of the dashboard).
• HBS Alert, a mass notification system for the HBS community that will contact you via phone, email, and text message in times of serious emergency or crisis on campus, and/or incidents affecting campus operations. If you have an HBS email address, you are already enrolled in HBS Alert. Be sure to Update your Classcard to include any phone numbers and email addresses at which you wish to be notified.