What about "excused absences"?

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE: I need to miss a class because of (fill in the blank), which is a (legitimate obligation, university-sponsored event, horrible contagious disease, other).

Fact: The policy in this course is to have bonus points for the number of days attended. But one of the details of the attendance policy is that all absences are created equal; there are no "excused absences".

The reason we have this policy is that it simplifies matters for everyone, and it is ultimately more fair to all the students in the class. There are 8-10 sections of this course, with 600-780 students enrolled each semester. If we allowed excuses for absences, the various faculty members in those multiple sections would be required to evaluate the excuses. Is a head cold equivalent to a broken ankle? Is a note from a doctor equivalent to a note from a volleyball coach? Is a note from a volleyball coach equivalent to a note from the band director? Is play practice equivalent to a flat tire on the way to school? Is a funeral for a family member equivalent to a funeral for a close friend? As you can see, this rapidly becomes a system of arbitrary value judgments, and it is inevitable that different instructors would evaluate different excuses differently. That leads, automatically, to unfairness. And acrimony.

So the current policy, where ALL absences are created equal, is actually more fair to ALL students, and it allows our instructors to focus on the real job of instruction, rather than agonize over the relative merits of various excuses for an absence.