The Importance of Attending Classes

Registration for the Summer 2024 session will open in late March/early April.  At Osher at CMU, our members can register for as many courses as they can fit into their schedules each term for the low price of $60. Many other Osher organizations charge per course taken. 

Unfortunately, we have noticed over the last several semesters that a surprisingly large number of students have either missed several weeks of class or those that are taking in-person classes are not checking in on the attendance sheet for the course. Our attendance records show that many students fail to show up at all for courses for which they are registered.  These absences cause several problems for study leaders and other Osher members.

As many classes have waiting lists, it is unfair to other members and study leaders to have seats registered for but unused. In addition, it is quite disheartening for our study leaders to expect, and prepare for, a certain number of participants and then have multiple students not show up.

When registering for your summer courses, please be sure you will be able to attend the classes as scheduled. If you cannot, please drop the course as soon you realize you can’t attend.  We want to give those on the waiting list the opportunity to attend.  We have found that once a course has started, it is hard to find someone from the waiting list to fill the seat and it often is left unfilled.  You can drop a class by logging into your account and clicking on “Drop My Course”.  Fill out the form by entering the course information and hit submit.  You can also send an email to osher@andrew.cmu.edu and tell us the 4-digit course ID or title of the course you wish to drop.  Please be sure to review the refund policy on our website for dropped courses.  

The Registrar and the Board of Directors take this issue very seriously and have implemented a policy to address this issue.  Those that habitually sign up but don’t show up for courses run the risk of losing the privilege of being able to register when registration first opens.  Since we don’t want this to happen to anyone, we ask that when you sign up for a course, that you show up to class.