As winter weather makes it more difficult for students and faculty on their way to classes, attendance policies have become an issue for some students and faculty members.Max Wortman, chairman of the Faculty Senate’s Council on Academic Affairs, said he doesn’t believe the university has a general attendance policy for students.”It depends on what the individual faculty member does,” he said.Wortman, distinguished professor of management, said many professors have a 10 percent to 15 percent participation grade which encourages students to come to class, but his personal policy is to allow students to make their own attendance choices.”I really do feel that it’s up to the student — they really should decide,” Wortman said. “If the instructor is good, they will be there.”Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science, said his lack of an attendance policy encourages personal responsibility in his students.”I don’t force them to come to class,” he said. “You know the consequences when you don’t come to class.”Professors who require attendance cause students to approach class differently, Schmidt said.”If we want to treat [students] like children, that’s fine, but our relationship with [students] will be different,” he said.Faculty members also face difficulty getting to class for a variety of reasons.Ebony Johnson, graduate assistant in the Dean of Students office, said each department controls its own policies on faculty attendance, and the university has no universal policy class attendance.”I do not think we have a policy that would regulate professors,” said Johnson, graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.Wortman also said most professors only miss lectures because of illness or professional meetings “to keep up” with current developments in their field and become better teachers. Each professor is expected to work 40 hours a week, though most work around 52 or 55.Wortman said faculty members absent from a class must fill out sick-leave reports monthly, and the university also periodically asks them to describe their daily activities.”We had to write down what we did each day every day for a week,” he said.