Reporting Absences

Thank you for your continued cooperation in helping first-time freshmen stay on track. The approach of Pathfinders has been to increase academic performance, retention and graduation by emphasizing the importance of regular class attendance. Clearly this approach worked. The freshman year average GPA for 2006 freshmen was 2.73, the retention rate was 83% for the 2005 freshmen, and the six-year graduation rate was 58% for the 2000 freshmen. Before the emphasis on class attendance, the freshman year average GPA was 2.52, the retention rate was 76%, and the six-year graduation rate was 50%. The average ACT of freshmen has not changed significantly during the last 16 years; therefore, improved performance cannot be attributed to an improvement in the academic qualifications of incoming freshmen.

 Our contact with students is intended as a “wake-up call”. We emphasize the need for self-motivation and personal responsibility in a college environment which is vastly different from high school. We do not function as “attendance police”. With the help of Residence Hall Academic Assistants, we will make personal contact with the students you report. In a positive manner we will make two points to students:

·        A freshman missing classes is often an indicator of academic difficulties.

·        Please talk to your instructor if you are having any academic problems.

Reporting Absences

Reporting absences may be done via Banner or our website. Please choose only one as your reporting method.  Regardless of which system you use, our goal is identifying quickly the freshmen who have two or more absences in a class. Although weekly reporting is preferred, we at minimum need updates on absences on or before each of these dates:

After midterm, please use your discretion to report further absences.

The absence reporting option in Banner will probably be the easiest reporting method for most faculty. In departments with TAs and others without Banner access the website may be a better option for reporting. If you do not have Banner access, talk to your department head or supervisor of TAs about absence reporting.

 Please choose either Banner or the Pathfinders website as your reporting method. If you choose to use the Banner system, all you have to do is update your absences and Pathfinders will automatically be notified of freshmen who have two or more absences. You may update your entire roster or you may simply update the freshmen in your class who have reached the second absence that week.

Reporting Absences in Banner:

 1. Log on to Banner with NetID and Net Password.

2. Click on “Banner” from the alternatives of Main, Campus, Classroom, Office, and Banner.

3. Under Grades and Absences, click on Absence Reporting.

4. Enter subject, course number, and section number.

5. Update absences on your class roster (boxes should display cumulative absences).

 With the absence reporting link in Banner you can either manually input absences or copy and paste absences from a delimited file.

 The manual input option allows you to change the number of absences either by typing in each student’s cumulative number of absences or by using the arrows to increase or decrease the number of absences.

 The copy and paste option allows you to simply copy and paste the data from your delimited file or spreadsheet, such as excel. Two data items are required for the copy and paste option, the students NetID in the first text area and the number of absences for the student in the second.

 1. You must first enter how your data is delimited (comma separated, space separated, tab separated, etc.),  

2. Next, copy the data from your data file and paste it into the text area in banner.

3. Lastly, click on the submit button.  

If you have made a mistake you can copy and paste the information again or manually make changes to the number of absences.

 Reporting Absences on Website:

 Go to http://www.ssrc.msstate.edu/fresh and follow the instructions for reporting. It would be helpful if you report only freshmen who have two or more absences.