text:
What's a good way to prevent students from saying I lost their paper?
As a teacher, I've often had students say that they turned in an assignment, but that because I don't see it, grade it, and return it back to them, that I must have lost their papers/assignments. I tend to be disorganized at times, so it's hard for me to confidently say that I really haven't lost their papers. To make matters worse, I have lost a student paper or two over the years only to find it weeks later.
How should I respond?
Notes:

Many have noted electronic submission. I'm assuming for this question that students turn in something physical that I could theoretically lose. ;-) This also allows this question to be applicable to schools that may not use electronic submission.

Electronic grade books (some of them are free. example) may help. Even simply an e-mail submission system can help. If it's a paper-based system, an e-mail confirmation system can help as well.

@DSVA: I'm thinking about the college/university level, but it really applies to any level where assignments are submitted.

Does your question imply that when they say so they actually didn't hand it in?

@AndreaLazzarotto: I've had students ask me if I've lost their work when I'm >95% sure they didn't turn it in. I believe they were hoping that I would assume that I lost it and that I would give them credit accordingly. I'm asking what I can do to cover myself.

One thing that comes to mind is that they sign a list as they turn it in, and you watch as they hand you the paper and sign. This would greatly slow down the process, though.

Ok, you can tell them "you are allowed to get a receipt when handing in the paper". :P

@AndreaLazzarotto you jest, but that's literally how exams are done in Portugal. There was a perforated corner on the exam booklets where you put your name and the course and when you hand it in the professor or proctor signs it and tears it off so you have proof of having taken the exam.

@DSVA "What level (high school, university) are we talking about?" Questions about primary and secondary education are off-topic here, so it had better be at the level of universities.

Students could submit papers to an administrator who provides receipts.

You can't "prevent students from saying [you] lost their paper" when you did in fact loose their papers.

Well, the sign thing is easy to counter: When a friend was not there for a assignement, we sign for him with our pen. Then say my pen do not work and ask for some one pen a sign on our name. Work 100% of the time. As the teach won't remember seeing the student it will add to the ' Something went wrong you ve lost my paper'. So do not go for the sign only.

If they come on loose pages, you could place the stack in a document scanner. Place stack (without staples and paperclips) in scanner - press a button and done (if the computer is on). Not perfect, but that would work if you do not lose the files.

In high-school, I had a teacher lose my project. It was a pretty large project so it being a 0 impacted my grade pretty negatively. I confronted them about it, and they basically told me there was no way they lost my paper and described to me his way of transporting them. I was very upset but I had no way to prove it was his fault so I just took a 0. About a week later, he called me up to the front and told me he found it, it had fallen out of his folder as he was taking another student's paper out. If you don't have a way both parties can verify it was turned in, you don't have any proof.

Why is this a good question? He's unorganized... And complaining that this is the cause of the problem... Should it be surprising that the answer is "get organized"?

@TheQuantumPhysicist: I asked the question and answered it minutes later. My thinking was that this had been an issue for the first semester of my TAing, and that probably most teachers have encountered this in some way. I thought that some of the things I learned from that might be of use to others, and others might contribute neat ideas, too. No complaining going on here! :-) I think it's obvious that the first step is to get organized, but that's only part of the answer because that's only part of the problem. The second part is responding to the student with a solid alibi.

If you don't have access to an electronic submission system then you could just have a grid with the students on one axis and the assignments on another. During "turn-in" time, mark off each submission right in front of them as they turn it in. Could even do it by ID number and post it so everyone can see and verify but it's still anonymous.

Don't lose their paper and produce it when asked. This shouldn't be a question.

@EthanTheBrave: I think you are overlooking half of the question. There's two issues: what if you're at fault and what if you aren't? Also, this happens to a lot of teachers. The "get organized" part is obvious (hence your comment), but how best to do that is not obvious, and it depends on several things. There's also the student dimension -- are they hoping to take advantage of the teacher's forgetfulness or disorganized tendencies? Responses should differ. See answers below.

I wouldn't worry too much about falsely giving people second chances on papers. I would be more worried about falsely failing students. The memory of a teacher is simply not good enough proof as teachers have too many students and can be under too much stress.

@Jeff If they are ambitious graduate students you might be able to through illegal-unethical means.

First, get organized.
You need a good defence. Make sure that you are not at fault.
What I've done is to put student assignments in a folder and keep it entirely separate from any other papers I have. When I bring their assignments home, I transport them in a plastic bag to further distinguish them and prevent papers from falling out somehow. For situations where the class turns in lots of assignments and students don't always pick up their graded assignments, papers can get out of order, so I make sure to keep each assignment in a separate folder, or I put all graded assignments in a single stack alphabetized by last name. I know with full certainty that students' assignments are in my "to-grade" folder, or my "to-return" folder, and nowhere else.
Second, respond to the student
If they say you've lost their paper, give them the benefit of the doubt by looking through your stack. If it's not there, you know it won't be anywhere else, short of a devious third-party intervention, and you can tell them so. :-)
Alternatives

Use an electronic submission dropbox (e.g. Blackboard, D2L, etc.).

You could have students email their assignments to you, but there's always the possibility that it gets caught in your spam filter. If you did this, you should send them an email ASAP to confirm that you received their submission.

Keep all papers in a single room: never take them home to grade, etc.
Keep a list of students who submitted their work as they turn it in.
Scan in assignments, keep an electronic copy and send the copy to students (idea from @MadMyche, in the comments below).

The last answer.  I had the same troubles, down to the messiness... though like many, I had systems that I felt worked... and found carrying papers to grade with me most places I went to allow me to best apply my time to it.  But had the same issue.  So eventually I just make a little checkbox I could run through rapidly.  Then you can either collect the papers yourself and so it, or take a free moment to run through the stack quickly, if giving a test or quiz or such.  Then no one can complain, and you're in top of it.

A way to avoid false spam positives is to have each student tell you in advance what address they will use to send you the assignment, or perhaps require the use of institutional addresses. Then you can whitelist them.

@DSVA "Every student has an university mail adress (...) and those won't get caught in the spam filter." [citation needed]

@DSVA I completely agree with all your points. I think it would have been better phrased as "(...) and those shouldn't get caught in the spam filter". My comment was half tongue-in-cheek, half warning. As a student in an Engineering School, I've seen... things. i.e. a department policy that sent to spam every email that came from a student who was not enroled in a class by that teacher. The enrolments cache was,of course,arbitrarily updated; and most teachers were not even aware of this filter.  From the student council, we managed to get it revoked but boy was it troublesome to discover it.

+1 for keep a list. Have the list ALWAYS at hand where a student may hand in their paper. Have the student sign the list off. They may still say they turned it in and you didn't have the list for them to sign, but if you stick to that procedure, you have a check for yourself AND stronger evidence on your side.

@DSVA: I attend a major US institution and stuff still gets caught in the spam filters on the rare occasion. One shouldn't merely whitelist institutional email addresses because they inevitably get compromised and send spam, which a good spam filter should not let through.

Poor attitude displayed in question, insofar as it's  OP's fault. Question should have been "how can I prevent losing students' papers due to my disorganization?"

@DSVA Common sense maybe, though students can have their email address compromised.  True, no.  At my university, my emails were sometimes just lost.  Not just put in the spam folder, but deleted in transit.  It turns out this is because the university system deleted all emails with zips containing executables (which is understandable), but some idiot had  that since .cpp files were "code" they're executable. (A .cpp is not executable, in the same way that you can't drive blueprints for a house)   So any zip files containing a .cpp caused the whole email to vanish.

@DSVA I wasn't saying that system was set up correctly.  I was pointing out there are a lot of very badly configured systems out there.

@PKG: Sorry if it was confusing. Not sure what you mean in terms of "poor attitude", but your version of the question is more descriptive. I'd like to point out that there are two parts to the question: 1) What's a good way to prevent this problem from existing, and 2) What can I do about it when students ask when I haven't lost papers (my organization has vastly improved). Being able to cover yourself is important, I think. Having a solid organizational system allows me to tell my students that I know beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt that I never received their paper(s).

As to the last of the alternatives; "Keep a list of students who submitted their work as they turn it in", I would add on a sub-points of giving them a receipt of some sort. You could also add in a fourth alternative of "scan the paper in" and add to your dropbox etc and email the student a copy

Has Blackboard gotten any better since I was in college?  Because back then it was horrible, and not something you'd want to recommend to anyone...

Also, don't have them just throw their assignment in a cardboard box in a corridor. ... I'm amazed by some comments saying that handing it to the tutor will be time-consuming!!! (someone is paid to teach, right?)

@Helen: What's the difference between having them put it in a locked box in a hallway and having them put it in a box at the front of class? Or are you saying that all assignments should be literally handed to the instructor or a TA?

@jvriesem Locked box would be okay. Many times I've seen a simple open cardboard box on the floor of a corridor, so my point was that this is an invitation for things to actually get lost.

Have the students write date, their name and the title of the assignment into the lower right corner of the first page.
When you receive a paper, put a stamp/short signature next to that, cut off the corner, and hand it back to the student. It'll serve as a receipt. There are even stamps with an "auto-increment" feature, which produce serial numbers.
Now, no one can claim you've lost some paper which has never been in existence, and no one can use the cut-off corners for a different assignment (you don't even have to collect them when returning the graded papers).
Next step: do not lose papers.

This seems... time consuming.

Stamping and cutting (or tearing off) a paper corner is not that time consuming; and that's the only time the teacher has to invest. If a student doesn't want to write date/name/title a second time, that's perfectly ok... but she or he won't get a receipt then, and can't claim the teacher has lost something later.

This relies on the signature/stamp not be forgable.  As you are handing out reems of samples to duplicate, this becomes tricky to prevent.

Some kind of receipt system is the only way to improve on simple trust and say-so. Electronic submission includes built-in receipts, which also could be forged. One way to deal with possible forgery is to request another copy of the work when the student claims their receipt is genuine but the teacher can't find the work. If the work was already done and the receipt is genuine, there should be no problem producing another copy. If the forger spent all that time on a forgery, they might not have had enough time to finish the work, so a copy would be harder to produce.

@ToddWilcox That would depend on the assignment. I'm sure many math exercises that took me hours to complete would still need at least half the time if I were to do them again a week or two later - and no, I didn't routinely xerox my handwritten math assignments, so I'd have had to start from scratch+memory if I'd had to do it again.

@Sumyrda I wasn't thinking about hand written work actually. I suppose that's a good point.

@Yakk Forging a signature is probably a more serious offence than lying. Most students would not resort to forgery even if they are willing to commit a "small" lie.

@jvb The time-consuming part is that the work has to be handed in to the teacher in person, rather than just being left in a pigeonhole or in-tray. Having a stream of students come to me for signatures would be hugely disruptive to my day. It's also hugely disruptive to the students, who would only be able to hand in work while I was in the office, and would have to come back later if I was in a meeting or away for any other reason.

Do you use this method? I wonder if having a custom device made that stamps two numbers and makes a cut between them would make this more feasible.

@Yakk You can use the serial numbers to avoid forgery by checking the receipt's serial number to see if it conflicts with another student's paper (both receipts and papers would need the number). You can also stamp the bag/folder/envelope holding the papers with the first and last serial numbers to ensure they can't use numbers past those for forgeries.

@Yakk How so? Stamps with increasing serial numbers are quite cheap, and when a student forges the receipt then you just look through your stack, find the work associated with that number and report the student for forgery. Simple as that, and an effective deterrent. Stamps that can producue duplicates for up to 6 digits are as cheap as $10.

An alternative which substantially reduces time to implement when collecting, is for all students to use a standard cover-sheet form printed on duplicate paper ("carbon paper", even if it isn't really carbon these days) with student and assignment names, their signature and hand-in date. While collecting submissions, sign the front sheet, detach it and hand to the student as receipt. A hassle to set up for an individual lecturer, but worth trying on a departmental level - I taught somewhere this had been standardized across the whole college & cover sheets were readily available

There are many good answers above. However, for your particular situation (only physical papers, and being realistic) realities of life is that submission within the classroom is rather hectic and you can't check/verify every student submission on the spot.
The way I suggest is simple: you just need to ensure that nothing is/was lost by you. In order to do so:
I place a large envelope (or even a box) on the table, visible enough to ensure no one can take something from it.  and require students to place their work in the box/container.  All what I need to do is to count the submissions and write down the count before I dismiss the class. If you want even more reassurances, tell the students the count (the latter will have the extra benefit of highlighting how may submissions are missing with out pointing out anyone or spending too much time verifying).
After grading, I know how many I had and  how many I graded. If the numbers match,  I haven't lost anything.
So, that solution should take you about 60 seconds to implement and no one can possibly claim that their work was lost as long as your numbers match.

Sounds like a very reasonable solution. Instead of an evelope or a box, something like a ballot box (with only one way in, no out) might also be a good idea. Also just have a single place to put submissions will greatly reduce the actual risk of losing something.

I used to work in a job where I was required to keep a solid paper trail that could be backed up in case something was 'lost'.
The best way to do it is to take a picture of every item that comes in with a cellphone (or digital camera - both super cheap these days!). No need to take a picture of every page, just a picture of the front cover.
You won't need to keep these pictures for long (just until you hand stuff back) and it'll stop it being an issue. Do it as it's handed in, and allow your students to see you do it, in case they're trying to get one over on you as you've lost it before.
If you lose stuff after that, there's not much you can do other than keeping more organised. Have a bag for 'stuff to mark' and 'stuff to hand back'.

This is so much faster and harder to forge than any other method mentioned. Almost everyone has a camera on their phone and the photos will carry date an time information in the meta data, so they can be easily sorted out to show what came in on a given day.

I might add: have the student also take a picture at the same time. Otherwise don't put it past someone who accuses a teacher of losing their paper to also accuse a teacher of deleting the photographic evidence.

Good point OhBeWise - although they could also delete/lose that picture and claim the teacher lost it. I'd suggest a sign in register where you both sign in the work - if their signature is on it and yours is, then it's hard to disprove.

Print a big spreadsheet of names
Just my grain of salt: at my high school, they have a list of students supposed to pass a given test. When we give in our copies, we have to sign it. This serves as proof of work.
You just supervise if they really have signed their work in as they fill it in, and you can log even more info, such as date (or time), number of sheets etc...
This way, you close off many loopholes, and because the students are the ones filling it in, they know they can't cheat this way and won't even try.

I see two alternatives:
(i) When it seems within the realm of reasonable possibility that you've lost a piece of student work, apologize and allow the student to resubmit it.  It is by the way a good idea for students to keep copies of the work that they submit.  Current technology makes this pretty easy independently of the format -- e.g. by taking cell phone pictures of handwritten work.
(ii) Get more organized, so that when a student claims you've lost their work, you can be confident and convincing that you haven't.
As for me, I mostly go with (i) for things like written homework (which tend to pass through a grader's hands before they get back to me; lots of opportunities for loss there), but I favor (ii) for exams: I have never lost an exam, and I would happily stare down a student who said I did.

I would +2 if I could. The simple solution of trusting the students telling the truth. And for those who are worried this courtesy might be misused: (1) If you get organized and are sure you haven't lost anything, you will deny the claim. (2) If someone tries the same stunt twice, it won't work. In fact, it's extremely unlikely that a person would try this stunt twice - it's risky and draws to much attention/scrutiny.

Electronic submission is the best. I couple this with simultaneous printed submissions. If they give it to me in print, it's on time but I expect an electronic copy ASAP and likewise if it's in online, I'll expect a print copy ASAP. (I personally wouldn't mind printing them, but the way our LMS works it can take me a solid minute or two to print each, and that's an hour or two wasted).
On test day, I take roll and ensure that I got each person's test (this is as much for the students as for the instructor, to make sure no stray tests will be floating around before everyone in a multi-section class has taken it). Students can see that literally the moment they walk out and that means no one can claim otherwise.
For anything handed in on paper, I also binder clip them together AND put into a manila envelope. Haven't lost anything yet, although I probably overkill it a bit.

Electronic submission is not always possible.

@jvriesem then the rest should apply (although I'm curious how it's not possible, I figure at this point every university has a mostly functional LMS/email system)

@guifa. It might not be possible for certain artistic classes.

@TriG true. Although my experience as an art major makes me feel that lost assignments aren't really as much of an issue (for a number of different reasons depending on the course). Often they'd stay in the studio. Sketch books had the highest likelihood of going out

Electronic submissions isn't really typical, however, for physics homework assignments which is more likely what can go lost if I am not careful. (I'm not going to make them latex it up). But I try to be obsessive about having a 'to be graded' folder and it stays in that folder until I have put it in my spreadsheet/blackboard or whatever. (If it gets lost on the way back to the student is not generally a problem).

@Carol a lot of times for small assignments like that that are annoying to type, I have them just take a picture with their phone. Perfect quality isn't necessary as long as it's evident they did it, but as a nice side effect, once I take it up, I can post answers for them to peruse and compare to their answers while I'm grading (which takes away some of the stress of feeling like I have to get the work graded by the next class session).

@Carol Your students would actually be well served by being required to typeset their work in some way (it doesn't have to be LaTeX). I audited a math class a few years ago where submission of homework was only accepted in PDF format via e-mail. Most students used a word processor with an equation editor (available in the school bookstore or as a cloud service at a student discount) and it wasn't a problem. I taught myself LaTeX very quickly and enjoyed that a lot. Anyone going to graduate school or working in the field would be really helped by having the skill of typesetting in some way.

@ToddWilcox The students would indeed be well served by learning LaTeX but, for most people, typesetting mathematics in LaTeX takes much longer than writing the same stuff by hand. I really don't think that's a good use of a student's time. My experience with teaching mathematical classes with electronic submission is that about half the students would typeset in some way and the other half would scan their hand-written answers.

@ToddWilcox - yea David Richerby's comments - I typeset all my answer sets in Latex but it takes a lot of extra work. I'd rather students spend it playing with the problems. Scanning the hand-written is possible and actually getting more convenient in my university (since it is free to scan and email on the copy machines) but students turning things in at 2am send emails with 10 jpegs (one per page) from their phones - which is a very unwelcome 'electronic' version to view - But it can be used to 'document' that HW was completed as Guifa notes.

I want to add that for me it is much more comfortable to write comments into handwritten documents than into scanned documents. Moreover, you can view physical documents anywhere without specific devices.

You could ask students to save copies and that you might lose papers. Then be liberal in letting students turn in work late.

The best way to prevent students from saying you lost their paper is a) not losing them, and b) keeping a record of the submitted assignments. If you're sometimes disorganized, find a simple, even better: automatic way of record-keeping and stick to it. For example you can achieve a) and b) by accepting only digital assignments that students send by email or upload somewhere. This way, you will also have a time-stamp.

One strategy I used is that I gave them a sheet of paper with an encrypted confirmation code for each assignment, that was unique to each person and each assignment. I declared if I lost their homework and they had the receipt, they would get full credit. This worked for a small course, and I was very organized to know everyone's name and kept them in a mini filing cabinet that I would take to the course. I forced them to turn everything in by hand to me directly. It is the only thing that has worked with 100% success for me.
This is not a tractable solution for a large course.

QR codes would be a highly valuable tool in a case like that - you can put quite a bit of info in one.

Another form of receipt.
You prepare them outside the test.
The first is a document which contains for each test and each student
a randomly selected long number, e.g. 17289346983. This paper is stored
at home and never in the office.
Then you print out for each test:
name of the student / number
as a receipt and sort them alphabetically to find them fast.
Do that in a copyshop with a cutting machine, it's quite fast.
The students give up their test and get in return their receipt.
Any given test without receipt are invalid, so the students
will not conveniently "forget" to get their receipt.
Using random numbers that you only know prevents fakes or
forgery and is not so work-intensive like signatures (which can
be still be forged).
Do not let pressure you for shortcuts or many students
demanding them at the same time. Many students => queue.
If they coming up with "important reasons" and "no time",
their problem. But the students themselves will not really
fight the system because you are already known as
the professor losing papers (sorry to be blunt, but such
blunders will be communicated through the grapevine without
mercy).
Otherwise I can only reiterate that you need to get
organized one way or the other.

"You prepare them outside the test." I think we're talking about homework assignments, here.

Well, easy, and has always worked for me: Have a simple table for the assignments. The students hands you an assignment, you make a checkmark in the table. The table is simple: one line per student, one column per assignment. For instance I have a table for checking the attendance anyway, so I would make it one table: the ones handing me an assignment are the ones present; if someone is present but does not hand an assignment, I'd have a special mark for it. Make it clear that it is the student's responsibility to wait for you to note the assignment in the table by the checkmark!
Now, the student can say that you made a second version of the table and omitted this one checkmark. However, that pushes the student from saying you made a mistake to saying you made a deliberate action against the student; this would be a very hard and a completely different blame.

Place the burden of proof on the user.
This involves giving them a receipt.  Yes, this can be a physical receipt, which you hand out when they personally hand the assignment to you.  The receipt could simply have a number on it.  e.g., 631453 for assignment 6, period 3, desk 14, if they have a 5 page document, turned in on Wednesday (the third weekday).
The reason they make this claim (even if it is true) is usually that they don't want to be penalized for lateness.  So give them the full benefit of the doubt if they produce a receipt and you can't use that receipt.  But if they can't produce the receipt, then regardless of how true their story is, they will not get the points.
Clearly what is described above seems cumbersome.  Electronic submissions would be nice.  However, you can also customize this process as extensively as you like.  For instance, you don't need to hand out a receipt to every student; just the ones who request it.  Then, IF they make a claim that you lost things, you can rightfully say that they had a known process to be able to protect themselves from this very issue, and they won't have a foundation to be able to insinuate that their lower GPA is due to something that is your fault and out of their control.

Mmm, after I just re-read some of the other articles, what I wrote is a bit more redundant.  I suppose the most unique point I make is reducing the instructor's workload by making the proof process optional, as initiated by the student.

Even though it might seem weird, I find it useful if you are really worried to have such problem.

I would just ask for an additional copy, either physical or digital. I had an undergrad class where each semester the professor would have a two binders, one to be graded and one for record keeping/reference. You'd personally have to put your hole punched paper into the binder rings, after the class he'd zip the binder close and put in his office. When someone challenged him on having lost a paper he'd just pull out the binder and ask them to find there paper. A majority would "remember" that they didnt turn it in after flipping a few pages.
It was also helpful as future classes could see other project ideas that were presented, page layouts, etc.

"etc", not "ect". It's short for et cetera.

You do need to tell people in advance to retain a second copy, though, otherwise they'll say "I don't have one".

LIST OF NAMES
Make a list of the students in your class. Make copies of this for all assignments, papers from this class.
Leave space for a heading.
eg: Math Assignment May 2nd 2017.
SIGNATURES
Have four columns next to each student name - two for your signature, two for students signature.
When the student submits the paper ask him to sign the sheet. When you receive a paper both of you sign. When you give him back the graded paper, again both sign. This way its impossible for the student to lie. Ensure that everyone signs so that no one can say they didn't sign.
Also while handing out graded papers always give them one by one. Leaving graded papers on your desk is a good way for papers to be lost.
Finally, DON'T LOSE PAPERS. GET ORGANIZED.

In many cases, graded papers will be confidential between you and the student. You can't just leave a stack of graded papers on the table for them to collect, because that allows them to see other students' marks.

@DavidRicherby In my university we do not have names on the papers. Only registration numbers. Unless it is a registration number of someone you know you won't be able to guess who scored what mark. And generally when a teacher leaves a stack of papers, the students all rush to get their own paper; rarely leaving time to see someone else's marks. Also depends if marks are confidential or not. Here, the marks are displayed on a notice board after evaluation- so does'nt matter anyway.

Simple is best
The simplest solution is by far the best: Keep an 'attendance sheet' on you for them to sign whilst they give you the assignment. If they don't sign the sheet, the assignment was never submitted.

What if the attend but do not hand an assignment?

The sheet will be signed ONLY when an assignment is submitted.

How about using a low-tech, old-fashioned receipt book?  Requires no electronics,a and all your receipts will be in one place.  Students hand in assignment, and can fill in the "from" and "for" spaces in your book.  You sign them all toward the end of class, and hand out their copies as they leave.

Your proposal is that the students all hand in work then, later, all get a receipt. Unless you spend a lot of time cross-referencing, you can't be sure that a student claimed a receipt without actually handing anything in.

The real magic isn't really in claiming the receipt as much as logging that the assignment was turned in.  The receipt is just a bonus (like a claim check in a coat room) for the student.

There is no magic: your protocol is completely broken. Your proposal is that the student hands in their assignment and logs the fact that they have done this; later, you sign the receipt and give it to them. If you do not check that the work was really handed in when you sign that receipt, then you might be signing a receipt for work that was never handed in, so the protocol is worthless. If you do check, it would be far less time-consuming to do the obvious thing, which is that the student hands in the work, you log that they did this, and you immediately sign a receipt.

For dispute resolution without the time involved in a formal receipt process, set up a dashcam, and record the physical submissions.

-1 for promoting surveillance which, IMO, is kind of totalitarian and uncalled for in an academic setting (or anywhere really).

I've seen this done before - in China. And I don't think that's the way we do it over here...

@PatricHartmann: Where is "over here"?


text:
How is the energy bill split in academic departments?
Consider a physics department for example. Does each lab get metered and pay its own bill in the United States, or does the department itself cover overhead? Do energy leaks get noticed and managed? Do you get yelled at for leaving the lights on?
What's the norm on who foots the energy bill?

Given some equipment in physics labs  you can leave the lights on for 50 years and it won't be noticed.

I think this will be closed as specific to the regulations of an institution.  A better question might be: Do grants pay utility bills?

Years ago one hot July day in New Jersey, I was in the accelerator lab running an experiment. The building folks came on the PA system and said that Con Edison had asked us to cut back on power to help prevent a brown out. The lab owner looked around the lab, stared at the ion accelerator for a bit (perhaps 25kW), and walked over to the door and turned off the room lights. That was our contribution...

Interesting question, I am curious to know the answer. To me, it feels relevant to academia SE.

Many grants include a negotiated overhead rate, which covers things like office space and electricity. But I am curious about whether ultra-high-energy equipment like GPU farms and particle accelerators are metered separately.

@JonCuster I like the cut of your jib.

I am pretty sure that there are no universal rules or norms. My university changed the system drastically a few years ago and it is very complicated right now

At the institutions where I worked in the US, a fixed overhead from grants, negotiated with the granting agency usually (e.g. X University takes YY% from all NSF grants held at X) went to those kinds of costs. I do not know of any exceptions, but we were more likely to be running refrigeration units and ovens than ion accelerators and each individual institute may have special exceptions. You would have to inquire directly.

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My university requires that I take attendance. How should I treat students who arrive late to class?
I might soon teach at a university which requires that I record attendance of students, as follows:

Attendance is a requirement for the course. A person with at least 75% of attendance is eligible to take final exams. A person with an attendance between 65% and 75% is required to submit a medical certificate. A person with less than 65% of attendance is not allowed to write the exam and has to do recourse.

The university has no explicit rules on how attendance should be recorded. I can take attendance at any time (though the start of class is recommended). Hence, I am looking for best practices about how to handle latecomers.
I studied many courses, and the behaviour of faculty in this particular aspect varies from one another. The following are the behaviours of faculties I observed mostly:

Allowing the latecomer into the class at any time and giving attendance to the latecomer.

Allowing the latecomer into the class at any time, asking a reason for being late, and then giving attendance to the latecomer.

Allowing the latecomer into the class, but giving attendance based on the reason the latecomer gives for being late.

Disallowing the latecomer by closing doors or with strict instruction.

So, I came to the impression that it totally depends on the particular faculty. Mostly I observed 1, 2 and 4. I observed 3 very rarely.
What is the recommended and proper behaviour towards latecomers?

I moved all comments to chat because I either considered them addressed by edits and similar, answers as comments, or discussing general attendance policies unrelated to the question. Please post new comments only if you expect them to improve the question. Also see this FAQ.

This is an answer to a previous version of the question, where it was not clear that recording attendance was mandatory at the asker’s university. Therefore my answer does not cover the specific situation of the OP, but may still help others in a similar situation.
0)  Allow all students in class and do not monitor attendance.
They are adults and they come to learn. As long as they do not disrupt the class they are free to come and go as they please. I do not see which purpose the monitoring of attendance serves. It sends the wrong signal and focuses students on signing the register sheet rather than on the objective of the class.
I do, however, start each class by thanking students who attend and come in time. Latecomers will miss this part.

I removed all comments about interpreting different versions of the question and keeping this answer in light of recent edits to chat. I’ll leave this answer standing with a disclaimer now. If you disagree with this or want some general policy, please take it to [meta]. Please only post further comments if they can improve this this answer. Please also see this FAQ.

In my classes, some students are adults who come to learn, others are clearly not.

I'll try to provide an answer in light of the fact that many answers here will come from professors who do not realize how common it is for some college institutions to have mandatory attendance-taking policies. First, I'll quote from the help page on the Blackboard Attendance feature, as it explains the different use-cases that made that feature necessary:

Many instructors who teach face-to-face and blended courses use
  attendance data as part of their students' overall grades. Also, some
  institutions and programs have attendance policies that require
  instructors to track the number of class meetings students have
  missed.
Instructors and institutions also use attendance data in these ways:

International students who must maintain visas may need to meet attendance requirements.
Institutions may need to prove “seat time” for federal funding or accreditation.
Many institutions and instructors use attendance as they focus on student retention.

Now, the OP's question is this:

What is the recommended and proper behavior towards late comers?

My answer would be: Whatever is least disruptive and takes the least time away from focus on the academic subject matter.
As you can see from other answers, many professors are actually aghast at the idea of taking time to track attendance for adult college students -- and reasonably so. However, I understand that the OP is at an institution where attendance-taking is mandatory (possibly via a policy by the academic department, college administration, funding agency, or state government, as above).
Most professors will, I think, agree that attendance-taking is a distraction and painful loss of time from focus on the academic subject matter that we are there to share. So -- granted your institutional parameters -- I recommend that you should minimize such loss of time as much as possible. Some suggested options:

If it is in your power to waive attendance-taking, then do so.
If you must take some kind of attendance records, consider exactly what you can use for the definition of "attendance" in your course. Perhaps attendance (course participation) is adjudicated by the most recent work submission, or weekly activity in an online discussion board. (Note that such work products are considered sufficient proof of attendance under U.S. Federal Law Title IV, section 34-CFR-668.22-L-7; search for "academic attendance". This language is likewise used verbatim as the official definition of attendance at my institution, for example.)
If you must take actual attendance in-class, then find the protocol that you spend the least amount of time adjudicating (incl. time on excuses/arguments/challenges, etc.). Perhaps this is easiest via a sign-in sheet, simultaneous with a practice exercise, or at the end of class.
Possibly there is a software solution which is convenient for you to use, such as the feature built into Blackboard, or a similar LMS in use at your institution.

Regarding the specific issue of latecomers, note that options 1-4 above are progressively less generous towards latecomers. If your institution makes it inescapable that you absolutely must spend time personally recording individual attendance every day, then I would do so at a single time that is convenient for you, and not cycle back afterward to deal with latecomers at all, so as to make the most efficient use of your time.

I’m having trouble imagining how a policy requiring instructors to actually take attendance could be enforced. Perhaps installing a turnstile at the door of every classroom, which can be opened only by a student ID card?

@JeffE Assigned seats and a seating chart make it fairly fast, just mark off the empty seats, or it could be done electronically with classes that use "clicker" response systems during lectures (cue students giving their clicker to their friends to be marked present). It's all still more time consuming than not taking attendance at all.

@JeffE I know classes where there is a small (tiny) grade bonus for being in class. TAs hand out lists of every student supposed to be attending at the beginning of class and this list is passed around and signed. Sure that's not "secure" in any sense of the word. But I (student's perspective) think it probably works ok. There are harsh disciplinary measures for any kind of cheating and most students wouldn't anyway. (other than that I'm happy to be at a university which doesn't allow instructors to really enforce attendance)

@JeffE: Be careful what you challenge college admins to do! Here are two examples. There are many others. https://www.identificationsystemsgroup.com/attendance-tracking | https://www.thecollegefix.com/feds-creating-facial-recognition-app-to-track-college-classroom-attendance/

@JeffE academic instututions teaching medical disciplines in my country require mandatory attendance for several kinds of classes and labs. The students sign on a list and if they commit fraud then they risk criminal charges.

No, I’m not wondering how to force students to attend, but rather how to force instructors to accurately report attendance, as opposed to just reporting everyone present and getting on with their job.

@JeffE I have heard horror stories where the institution audits the attendance records and follows up on irregularities (such as picture perfect attendance) by questioning the faculty member and the TAs(!) of the course. The reason for the frankly ridiculous audit was supposedly to prepare for an audit by the government, which should be no surprise at all. Amazing what magnifying effect a few layers of bureaucracy can have, isn't it.

@JeffE: You asked about ID cards, I provided a link about ID cards and more. It sounds like you are a mandatory-attendance-denier and I doubt anything I say will convince you of the situation at institutions other than yours.

Noone seems to have yet brought up that the reason this is required. The reasoning is related to financial aid fraud. It seems that students are taking out loans and then never attending courses (and failing the course, usually). The federal government believes this behavior is detrimental to both the government and the student (going into debt without getting any educational credits in the end). When a school has a lot of cases of this, the school can get sanctioned and can lose some of its aid. It is paternalistic, but the government also has an interest in spending its money well.

@Dawn Does taking attendance really improve success ratio, though? Where I come from, financial aid can be cancelled when you do not get enough points per semester - which you get for passing exams / passing the course. So no passing exams/courses = no financial aid after some time (ofc failing an exam here and there doesn't leave you without aid completely). There doesn't seem to be a need to really control attendance in class in order for this system to work.

@DanielR.Collins I was responding to comments above yours.

@Polygnome I've seen financial aid that only watches attendance, not academic success.

To clarify, it is “fraud” because non-attending students are considered fake students, not because they are bad students. A student who attended and failed is fine.

I say: Add that behaviours #4 meets this answer's requirement best. In the short term, it reduces disruption to ~0 for all who arrive on time. In the long term (over a lifetime), assuming they are late less, it even reduces disruption for the excluded students as well. The worst is repeating material for latecomers! You decide how much lead time to allow, so if you're late, it's always your fault. I wish, when I was younger, I was taught why I was taught to be on time - why all the skills are valuable: Be prepared. Respect others' time. Plan ahead. Can we make it explicit!? @DanielR.Collins?

Agreed.  In the military, instructors appoint one student (usually senior ranking one or one who is strong in the material) to manage the roll.  Takes no time from students or teacher.  Is an imposition on him off course.  If you have a TA, use him.  Assigned seats makes it easier.

In this case, attendance is a requirement mandated from above. You could ask for clarification from the powers that be who set the rule. For example, you could ask ... Is attendance to be recorded at the start, middle, or end of class? In other words, you could push the decision process back up the chain from where it came.
This approach is likely best done only when you have lots of free time, you have a thick skin, and you just want to annoy your superiors.
The inference is that you have the freedom to define your approach to how you record attendance. Dissecting each of your options, I might see them this way ...
1) You record attendance at the end of class
2) You record attendance at the start or end of class AND either do not ask the latecomers for excuses or ask the latecomers for excuses that you then ignore anyway
3) You record attendance at the start or end of class AND ask the latecomers for excuses AND try to parse the excuses based on a matrix that relies on other potentially unclear and arbitrary rules AND use an on-the-spot decision from that ruling to erase attendance
4) You record attendance at the start of class AND shut out latecomers from even entering the class which only serves to annoy the "honest latecomers", stoke your ego, and count attendance twice because the latecomers may also be shut out of the final exam
I hope that, with this analysis, you see the excess overhead and futility of using options 2-4.
Let's presume that you do not have the option to IGNORE taking attendance. Perhaps for example you are mandated to make a report that proves that you did record attendance in some manner. In this case, I suggest, with the freedom that you have to define attendance, you have perhaps two different approaches.
Attendance Means You Were Here for a Certain Portion of the Lecture
Record attendance at a certain point in time near start of class or near the end of the class and then be done with it. Latecomers should be allowed a certain grace, for example perhaps either to the middle of class. After that grace, they can show up but they will be recorded as having been absent. In addition, if students leave after you take attendance, they will still be recorded as having been present. Attendance then becomes a consistent message, both in what it means and in when it is recorded. You don't bother yourself with policing attendance on-the-spot, either by parsing excuses, by shutting out latecomers, or by glaring at early-leavers.
When you would do as above, figure out how you will handle students who ARE late yet will try to say "I was there by the time the attendance was recorded and you missed me." On the other side, you will have to accept that you allow students to leave with no penalty after attendance is taken. The clicker system that is oft-used in US classrooms can be a great resource for taking attendance ... With due diligence, it should not be easily cheated. Other methods have their pros and cons.
In the end, whatever you decide to handle such cases, keep it simple and consistent.
Attendance Means You Were Here at the Time the Lecture Started or by the Time the Lecture Ended (PERIOD)
Record attendance either at the start or at the end of he lecture and be done with it. The message again is consistent ... be here at the start or be here at the end.
Summary
When the rule is only that you take attendance, whatever you do, keep it simple and be consistent. Avoid trying to close every loophole with yet more regulations and oversight.

Overall, I like this approach, but I'm a bit unclear on whether the grace period you mention means that folks arriving then will be counted as in-attendance, or just that the door won't be locked against them. (Also, clicker attendance absolutely can be cheated; this came up recently when my institution tried to use them to count votes in faculty meetings, and a CS professor hacked the "trial" vote.)

It’s pretty easy. I have seen students come to class with eight clickers.

Interestingly, "whence" already includes "from" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whence

You missed the option: "Record attendance at the beginning of the class, and note latecomers as late without recording any reasons whatsoever."  Lateness has become bizarrely normalized in Academia, but that's no reason to exclude this option from your list (which already includes choices characterized as futile).

it is also worth mentioning that it is quite common for students to have to leave early or midway through the class, for an interview, for a quick lunch before the next lesson etc. Recording the attendance at the end of the class would mark these students as not-attended even though they might be around for >half of the lecture/lesson

@Troy I updated as best possible to reflect your insights. One reason I detest mandated attendance is that it exposes all of these exceptions.

@JeffreyJWeimer, you updated 3, but it's not at all what I suggested, so it's odd to say you updated it "accordingly."

@Wildcard The option you mention is now is 2.

At university level students are adults. It is their choice, their life, their responsibility.
If they decide to come late and miss things this is their choice and their personal consequences. It is not the responsibility of a teacher at university level (Bachelors, Masters of Doctoral) to discipline them as schoolchildren or parents.
The only proviso is that they must not interfere with the learning opportunities of other students in the class by being disruptive. If they arrive late, they should do so discretely and give appropriate apologies if convenient.
I know many students who have family commitments (such as children's doctors appointments) or travel long distances to class and suffer the vagaries of the public transport system. It would be quite unfair and prejudicial to single them out with negative comments.
You should reflect on your attitude to student learning and teaching, and not those of your class.

The faculty are adults, but will they arrive late? And will they do that often? Faculty tend to be late rarely.... Faculty also have family and commitments...

It looks like this is a course with mandatory attendance, so that decision has already been taken above OP's level.

-1 This does not answer the question, which implies that the OP is at a mandatory attendance-taking institution (possibly by administrative or legal requirement).

@DanielR.Collins that was added in a comment after my answer, however my answer still stands. Someone who is late has still attended. Its all about respect from both sides of the class.

So exactly what policy are you recommending? "reflect on your attitude" is not an attendance policy.

@SolarMike In 21 years of teaching, I was never more than 60 seconds late to a class, and that was when I was stopped by the Dean on the stairs.

@BobBrown so if the faculty can do it, why can't the students : just lack of respect ....

@SolarMike: Both professors and students tend to have sufficiently full schedules that they always have to compromise between the risk of being late to a lecture and other obligations. A good lecturer will reduce the risk of being late on expense of other things (and they can, because in contrast to students they do not have their schedule packed with lectures and similar), because if they are late the entire class suffers, while in case of a late student nobody else suffers (if they are not disruptive). A student coming late to a lecture is like a professor coming late to a colloquium talk.

@SolarMike I really hate the narrative that attendance is a sign of “respect”. It is not. Mandatory attendance is asking for compliance, which is not the same thing.

@JeffE attending on time, or before time is a sign of respect in most situations... Being late is taken as rude in many situations, leading to the phrase often used " He (or she) will be late for their own funeral". Being late to a doctor's appointment may lead to you being charged anyway, being late to your meeting with a bank manager won't help your case. Many of us were taught by our parents that being on time was a virtue.

@SolarMike Please don’t conflate “attendance” with “being on time”.

@SolarMike: I know many faculty who often "forget" about the lecture until after some time reminded by the students. In conferencea, also faculty are often late.. however, the difference between faculty and students is that  it is working time for the faculty and they get paid to be there on time. Students most often not.

I agree the rule is stooopid but this doesn’t answer the question.

Mandatory attendance institutions are quite common in some parts of the world. I used to study in one.
We used to have a roll call. If you are present while your number is called out, your attendance is marked. If you are not, then it is not. Exceptions were made for some known problems like heavy rain or bus/train strikes, and people were always welcome to sit through a lecture without their attendance being marked if they wanted to. This system is prone to a lot of problems though. For example, politically well connected students were able to bully some professors into marking their attendance (yes, this happens).
The most effective system I heard implemented (not in my institution) was to take it out of the hands of the professors. One institution had some helps (or 'peons", as they are called locally) that they employed. Say a lecture starts at 1:00 pm. The helps used to run around their sections of classes at around 1:10 pm and collect all the attendance sheets. They had later started to up their tech and had fingerprint readers to mark attendance which were powered off remotely 10 minutes into every lecture.
There's (hopefully) no way to make a change after that. This system is less prone to manipulation. Few, if any, had the political clout to challenge a higher up to whom these sheets were submitted. More importantly, it keeps the relationship between the professors and their students healthy.
I will admit that most students never liked the mandatory attendance policy. But there certainly are good reasons for its existence in some countries. Those reasons are outside the scope of this answer.

Most of the answers are very tolerant. Since this is obviously a matter of preference, I always went for 4 (close the doors and nobody comes in after my lecture started).
Missing one class is not the end of the world for them. It will, however, teach them something: that time is valuable and that they must make whatever they can to be on time. Even if it means being there 15 minutes early because of an unfortunate train connection.
Being late of course happens, and the world will usually not be waiting for you. You were late for the plane, it is gone. You were late for a doctor appointment, the next patient jumped in.
This is simply life and being late is often a decision, and sometimes bad luck.
If being late means that they will get sick, die, or miss a once-in-a-life opportunity then laxism is welcome. Otherwise this is just teaching them that the world is what it is, and being on time is an asset.
Today, outside of academia, I start my meetings sharp. If someone is late then I never summarize what happened earlier in the meeting (I do not usually have, technically, the possibility to block them).
One last point to take into account is the commute between courses or meetings: people building timetables think that this is done over teleportation and do not add buffers between classes. They should not work where they work because they are simply incompetent.
I finish the meetings / courses I am in control of a few minutes early but if I stuck with one which finishes sharp and the next one starts sharp as well, I make decisions: to leave early or to be late (and possibly miss the meeting). Be nice  and if your course is right behind the one of someone who has no understanding that commute time is necessary then you may start yours 5 minutes later (I did this a few times not to penalize the students because of decisions outside their control)
One last edit: I strongly believe that we should treat students as adults and leave attendance to the students. If the rules are different though, they should be enforced (for their own good - and apparently they are not such grown up adults yet)

That may work in some places but many campuses don't allow sufficient time for all students to make it between lectures (especially disabled students). I've taught labs where a large subset of the students were expected to walk from another site in zero time, a walk that took me 10 minutes.

@ChrisH: this is exactly why I mentioned that some people think that teleportation works between meetings/courses and plan the timings around this ridiculous idea (those people are idiots and should be treated as such when there is an opportunity). One should either put pressure so that courses take this into account, or be the reasonable/kind person who will be starting the class a bit later (clearly announcing it, and that after the initial 5 minutes the class is closed). This also means not starting on tile as one cannot penalized the ones who are on time (within the 5 minutes).

College students who've paid for the class shouldn't be locked out of it even if you're going to mark them as absent. Your syllabus probably wasn't readily available when they paid for the class, after all. This could potentially open the college up to a lawsuit. Second, unless the name of the class is, "how to be a douche by example" this type of behavior is really uncalled for. You aren't there to teach them this sort of life lesson. If you want to mark them down as not attending that is one thing but to bar access to the class or otherwise demean or sabotage the student is just being cruel.

@krowe2: a plane you paid for will not be waiting for you. They are not douchebags - it is just life. If this is "behaviour uncalled for" then you live in a happy place where your money means that you are entitled to everything, by the mere fact of paying. I am not sabotaging students - they do this themselves by choosing to be late (in most of the cases, except the ones I noted in my answer). Next time they will be more careful and plan better - which is a valuable lesson learned. (and to your first point: where I live education is free as it should be everywhere - answer stays the same)

The plane has to leave on time, or the 250 people who paid for their ticket will not get what they paid for, and the 50 or so people whose job it is to make the plane go (pilots, gate agents, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, ticket agents at transfer airports) will get extra work to adjust, all of which is incredibly expensive. I’m not so sure you have to close the classroom door.

@JeffE: again, this is a matter of principles. If someone does not care being late, I do not care about their well-being. They will interrupt the course, to the detriment of the others. Next time they will be on time. I can completely understand that people are tolerant of being late (I live in France, the country of Being Late Is Cool  And A Power Move) - it is just not me. The other students are like the plane passengers who paid to start on time and I find it incredibly rude that they need to adapt. YMMV.

@WoJ Fine. But be honest (esp. with your students) about the policy being your decision. Your examples suggest that you think locking out late students is just how life works, or that being locked out is entirely their choice. It is not; it’s just how your classroom works; locking them out is also your choice. See also: Cool And A Power Move.

When you pay for something you're entitled to what you've paid for. In this case, it would be hard to argue that this doesn't include access to the lectures. Saying that college education should be free while also using that as an excuse for being unaccommodating to your students is an..interesting..combo of arguments. An instructor who doesn't think that every minute of lecture isn't vitally important to the success of their students isn't likely providing the density of material I'd expect from a college course. Has no one ever explained to you that "free" isn't the same as "not paid for"?

@krowe2: please do not interpret what I am saying. I specifically stated that the fact that our education is free does not change my answer. That's for one. Then when you pay for a course you get it if you are on time. Otherwise you interrupt others, who were there on time for what they paid for. See my analogy with the plane which starts without you when you are late even though you payed for it. This is not being unaccommodating - this is expecting everyone to play the rules. If you think you can be late and therefore rude to others - your coice but not on my course.

@krowe2: after your last line as an ad hominem attack, it is not worth continuing. I sincerely hope that someone will teach you one day how to discuss without attacking someone but their ideas. There are courses for that. With this said, have a nice day.

I wish my classes had been run this way. I have chronic lateness issues and wish this lesson had been driven home when I was younger.  Truth is, it's always my fault if I'm late.  If traffic, weather, car issues, overlapping schedules or, whatever were a factor, it was my choice not to allow enough lead time to accommodate such factors. I HATE it when someone accommodates latecomers by repeating material - even if I was one of them!
I wish I had been taught all the good lessons reinforced by and reasons for the policy along with the policy.  Be prepared. Respect others.  Plan ahead...

This policy would just make me upset and lose the opportunity to learn during that lesson. Being late would have most likely been due to an issue or commitment from another class. It happened rarely: and being punished in a sense would have served no positive purpose.  Fortunately I never had an instructor enforce such a rule.

@javadba: I understand that you would be upset, but being late was either a decision you made, or a decision of your school (which does not allow for the commute and/or allows for teachers to overrun their allocated time). Both are fixable. You may have noticed that I mentioned in the last part of my answer that I accounted for the commute time (including the commute time from other courses where the teachers finished right on time). Complain to them, complain to the school. Nobody serious will be waiting for you, planes or doctors do not already. Employers won't either.

Employers won't either.  No need to patronize . The timing is interesting: just yesterday an entire set of deliverables was accepted by the team (and mgmt) to be delayed.  There were strong reasons to do so including cross team dependencies and decision to do a finer level of detail in the work. In my (decades of) experience the quality and contents of deliverables trump deadlines - naturally with understanding of the rationale.

@javadba: I do not patronize - this is Academia regarding students, people who are still learning how to prioritize things. You are employed, have decades of experience and you mention deliverables - I do not know many projects which were on time. This is why the first estimation is multiplied by 5 and the next order of magnitude of units is used there :à This is part of the game, so to speak. Being late at courses is not.

@javadba To be clear: when I mentioned "employers", it was in the context of getting hired - not being late is one of the key elements and in some countries being late means being impolite on purpose. Anyway - I tired to be accommodating with the extra time chopped before and after courses when other were not but apparently this is not good enough. Be it, I will keep my approach anyway.

Ah for interviews..  for that I totally agree: can't be late (without seriously solid reason - and even then it's a risk).  I am personally quite willing to work with a candidate that is late but v solid technically - but many other folks are simply not: you're late you're out.

Wow. If I was a student sitting in your class and some other student would not get in because of them being late and closed doors, I (as the punctual student) would be really mad against this stupid policy.

@user111388: YMMV. There are whole countries where being late is a power move or fashionable. Some others see this as lack of maturity or manners (and therefore not getting in is a valuable, low cost lesson)

@WoJ: Maybe your country is different then mine. In my country, people coming late do usually so because they have no power: another prof moved his lecture such that you cannot go to both at the same time, only ten minutes official lunch break because of the schedule (which you cannot control except you want to lose a year in your studies), problems with children etc. Power late people were probably some of my own profs who often forgot about class (yet nothing bad happened to them).

Well, I mean this situation often means that students have to be like 15 minutes late because the other lecture is 10 minutes out after the next starts. Yet I do think most late reasons in my country come from powerless, not powerful. But of course I understand it's different in your place.

I taught at the university level for years and disagree with most of the above.  Yes, students are "adults" but the ones traipsing in 5 or 10 mins late rarely are acting like them.  They disrupt the class, and more importantly miss important notes or announcements, requiring YOU to consistently do extra work.  If they are adults, they can decide whether to come to class or skip it, but if they come, they shouldn't be arriving after the door closes (give a couple minutes' grace period) and they shouldn't be asking YOU to handhold them the entire semester while they figure out to set their alarm clock.
And since taking attendance is a requirement as noted by the OP's edit, his or her implementing of this will be evaluated and possibly become a part of the decision to rehire.  So being lax about this or deciding to secretly not do it seems unwise.
Anyone who's fine letting kids come in late doesn't understand how distracting to the REAL adults (instructor and kids who got there on time!!!) that policy is.  And while you can certainly make an exception for the good student who has a flat tire that one day, being the prof who everyone knows will let you arrive any time will be a Pandora's Box that once opened, will be hard to close.
Whatever policy you choose, make sure it's clearly in the syllabus and that you stick to it.  But think about the students who CARE about your class, getting there on time, eager to learn, who have to put up with you admitting and addressing a stream of stragglers who arrive whenever they feel like it each time.

Those who are fine letting students in late, then going through the already covered material as a "small private" lesson while the others wait are pandering to those so-called "adults" who have yet to mature and arrive late "because it is their right"...

In my.impression, most latecomers take seats where they don't disturb the classroom. Then nobody has a problem with them being late.

Announce to the students that because of the requirement of the institution you have to track their time of coming, and create a journal where each latecomer writes down his name and time of coming. So the student tracks his own progress and you can simply verify that the time written is correct. After that calculate the exact percentage of a students presence, as required by the university.
In my mind punishing latecomers is a faulty practice, but for some reason your institution requires that. I assume that the reason behind this is to make students more responsible. By using the method described above you actually do your best:

Get the absolutely correct individual percentages of attendance.
Make students as much responsible for this as you ever could, because they will fixate and confirm the fact of their latecoming by their own hands.
At any given moment any given student is perfectly aware of his status and can project and manage his time and plan for himself/herself. You give them freedom and help (as much as possible while respecting the rules).
You avoid taking on the moral role you are not inclined to.

This is totally what I was thinking of. However, the drawback might be the noise/interruption during signing the list (maybe the teacher even has to check the ID because they don't know all students personally). Furthermore, to be fair, students that leave early for whatever reason would also need to sign that list...

@Marzipanherz yeah, well, interruption is inevitable in the OPs situation except for the most radical version when students simply don't even try to come if they're late. Signing the journal on leaving is a thing to do too, but that is a far more seldomly occuring situation. The noise can be minimized by having the journal lay near the entrance and the whole procedure to be done silently. Another option is to assign one of the students on the first desk to be responsible to fill in the journal. Well, the idea is interesting, I wonder how would it play out in the real life... :)

Note that this process fails to identify to students who are entirely absent.

The reason is likely financial aid related regulations designed to curb fraud and abuse, not to teach responsibility.

@Dawn hmm, that's a different implication, but with a similar effect.. but yeah

"get the absolutely correct individual percentages"..after some time, every minute one student will come or leave just to make fun of thia solly policy.

@user111388 it is a change of topic, but this then transcends to a completely different type of issue of a deliberate massed behavior that consciously undermines the educational process entirely and for the sake of fun. 1-time fun is alright. But if such behavior is seen as imaginable at all by a prevailing number of students, performed on a daily basis, then there are very serious problems in that educational institution, and tracking students attendance won't fix them. That would indicate that all those students severely lack self-respect, and this would need to be treated in a suitable way.

I do tutorial and practicals but not lectures, so your mileage may vary. My method is to arrive early and leave two sign in sheets near the door, watching what's going on to make it more difficult for students to sign in their friends. About five minutes after I start I remove the sign in sheets, and at the end I draw a line under the current point and allow students to approach me to get their name added - I'll ask them why, and then let them sign in. I personally give them full credit since they at least turned up, but this is certainly modified because I know why we're forced to take attendance.
Why, then? Problem is that a fair number of so-called "students" enter the country on student visas, turn up to the first week, and then are never seen from again. By the time the government is notified they have failed their course nine months later, they've effectively removed all trace of themselves and no-one can find them. As a result my institution has to report regularly through the year to immigration the attendance record of holders of student visas, so immigration can attempt to find them before they've managed to vanish.
This behaviour isn't victimless - we have a maximum number of students we can teach with the resources we have, and because international students pay more they often get priority over local students in courses we have quotas on.
I find it heart-breaking when a local student not doing as well as they should in course B says they're having motivation issues because they really wanted to be in course A but didn't make quota, when you know how many people in course A on student visas haven't turned up since that first week.
Clearly my approach is modified by why I'm forced to take attendance. Personally I believe is someone is nailing their course and far ahead of everyone else, it doesn't matter so much if they skip the odd class.

As the university has no explicit rules on how attendance should be recorded, I am asking about this... I came to the impression that it totally depends on the particular faculty.
What is the recommended and proper behavior towards latecomers?

There isn't one
By omitting this from the policy they intend to leave it up to you.
As evidence, you've noted four different ways that you've seen it done.  The only option you don't have is skipping the attendance taking.
If you want to be strict, call out the names in the beginning. Set the policy that latecomers have to come to you after class if they want credit. This has the benefit of encouraging them to be on time (minimizing class disruptions).  You can answer all questions before addressing attendance as an additional incentive.
If you want to be quick, assign seating and check attendance quickly by noticing which seats are empty. See above about latecomers.  If the class size is above 75 this probably your best option.
If you want to be loose, at some point during the class estimate the number of students in the class - if it looks like the right number, they are all present. Mark students that are absent instead of ones that are present. Maybe you shouldn't do this because it is skipping attendance taking... which they're clear that you have to do. But if you forget to do this some classes, then I guess they are all present, right?
Again, my point is that they left it out of the policy because they either didn't want to put it in there or they don't care how you do it.
As to whether late students get credit, this is also unclear so you could count 'show up', require they be on time, or require that they be there half the time. Your choice.
Don't ask anyone about it.
IF you ask THEN you put them in the awkward position of having to answer you when they don't want to.
Personally, I'd say attendance is irrelevant because if your tests cover the material and they pass the test, then they pass - because they know the material.  But that isn't the policy, the policy considers attendance.
Take attendance in some way (because you have to) and spend your time and energy teaching those that show up.

Yes. Indeed, for all we know, the general policy was created for some CYA purpose, and no one actually cares beyond that. The lack of procedural prescription is some indication of a possible lack of genuine interest beyond that.

... and, yes, "CYA" in polite language means "officially announcing a policy, almost entirely so that one can claim that the policy is official, avoiding trouble/responsibility of some sort... as opposed to necessarily genuinely caring". In U.S. academe, in my observation, much official policy is of this sort. At best, no one really cares. At worst, it can be "unfunded mandate", in the sense that we are commanded to do something but not given the resources to do it, etc.

Actually, "unfunded mandate" is not the worst. It is possible (to my dismay, upon recent observation) to have official policies that are "safe" from a legal viewpoint, coherent, and maybe sound good, but in fact are destructive...  Luckily, attendance taking probably does not verge on genuinely nasty stuff.

@hanugm I like this answer, particularly, the "Don't ask anyone about it." part. I refrain from answering this question because I don't want to advise someone to knowingly violate the policy even I think the policy is wrong. This answer gives you all kinds of options to choose from. So, it's up to you to pick one.

While my preferred method is to just leave attendance up to the student entirely, recognizing that "things happen" and "people can learn differently", for the situation in which you must take attendance, you want a method that is painless and flexible.
One way is to require that students give you an index card with their name and date for each class. You can do this for the latecomers only, or actually for everyone. When they come in, they hand you a card. This assumes, of course, a suitable scale. I wouldn't require a card for everyone for 100 students, but for 30 it is fine.
If you want/need to make judgements about excuses, then latecomers can write their reason for lateness on the card.
In this way you don't need to interrupt the class, just collect the cards for later processing. You can also make notations on the cards as the class proceeds if you want to record in-process events of any kind.
My students typically would have cards as a matter of course for note-taking and other in-class activities, but you can provide the cards yourself.
For an especially small class, say a dozen or so, I would just carry one card for each student while I was teaching. I could easily sort the cards into those present and those not and annotate absences on the card after the class ends.
Of course, you may need to worry about people turning in cards for others, but a count will tell you if that has happened. And, of course, you must deal with "early leavers" with a different method, but if you know the name-face correspondences it isn't too hard to handle.

When you are a TA, you have to follow the local rules and will have little power to change them (although you have every right to discuss them with colleagues). The way to do so, and the choice to do so in a more general situation, is an important matter.
Many colleagues, and many answer above dismiss the need to bother with attendance and lateness ("as long as it does not disturb the class"), on the ground that students are adults. I very much disagree with this argument. Since this is not a popular opinion, I feel the need to give some context and justification.
First, recall that there are many many situations where rules are made for people own good, even adults - mandatory belts in cars, for example (as in France, I do not know the law in other countries). When first enforced, this kind of rule tend to be rejected as treating people as children; after a time, they often get adopted and become obvious. Did people get more adult in the meantime? No, but our behavior, and what we consider proper behavior, is shaped by what others do and what rules (explicit or implicit, legal or traditional) are in force.
Second, recall that this applies to us academics, however grown up we are. Do you think that the attitude of staff when you turn your paperwork for your next conference late past the deadline has no bearing on your behavior next time? If administrative staff simply treats this as if it where normal, don't you think you would probably miss the deadline quite often? On the contrary, if they (respectfully) mention how much more difficult it makes their job, wouldn't you be more careful? Do you think it is necessarily treating faculty as children to have rules and deadlines for paperwork? Or can you see it is (in good cases) about all of us to interact smoothly and work efficiently? We all act according to a large set of rules, and good rules are those that have a good incentive/heaviness ratio. The most permissive rules are not necessarily optimal.
Similarly, students attitude toward "going into class" will be shaped by what they see other student do, and how teachers react to what they do. Simply ignoring late students, or student that only show up every other class, will send a very clear message: that it is okay to do so. In most cases, this message is actually detrimental to their study.
Teachers should not ignore that the way they react sends a message, and they should thus choose how to react in a way that sends a message they believe is accurate and supports our goal: to have student learn. Since I believe the correct message is that showing up in class on time is an important part of studying, I try to adopt rules consistent with this message (one can feel differently about importance of showing up in class on time, but beware that a small proportion of student that can dispense from it should not hide a vast majority that cannot afford this).
The precise rule I adopt has changed over time. Lately, I have settled for the following: whenever a student shows up more than (literally) 1-2 minutes late, I ask her or him to wait outside; I finish what I was saying and let a little something to think about to the class; I go see the late student, and ask why he or she is late; I always let her or him get in, but make sure to mention being late is not a good thing; then I carry on with the course. This has I think a good balance, even in amphitheaters (first lectures I usually get a dozen late student at a time, then they mostly show up on time - or not at all).

It may well be that arriving late is detrimental to one’s study, but instructors are not in charge of the properly “raising” students, only in charge of their academic education.  Unlike seatbelts or driving drunk or other instances where there are costs to society when one ignores the law, the only persons that can be harmed in arriving late is the person himself/herself and anyone wishing to emulate this inappropriate behaviour.  Agreed it would be harmful for an instructor to be consistently late and thus give a bad example, but students be able to do what is best for them.

@ZeroTheHero: 1. I do not think it yours to tell that instructor are not in charge of raising students. My job is to instruct and to help student succeed, including helping them become gradually more autonomous. 2. Expecting student to be on time is similar to expecting them to be able to do well on tests: it is part of my respect for them. Noticing explicitly when they are late shows I care about it, while not bothering would give, I think, the impression that I don't. 3. Not putting one's seatbelt hardly can cause harm to anyone outside the trespasser, so I do not see the difference.

Use a sheet of paper where the students mark their attendance. That way, you are doing your job to record the attendance and have a proof about it, while still giving the students some leeway at what time they appear at class. It also makes it possible for the occasional friend to help another classmate with marking their attendance without really allowing it, if that's what you desire.

Ask the one whose signature is at the end of the document. They made the rule, whatever it is, and they are responsible for it. The moral dilemmas are on their heads. If you have doubts, ask them because they are entitled to demand the rules and change the rules. Each and every strategy has their pros and cons and it was considered and decided.
After the discussion, stick to the rules you both agreed on as firm as possible. Describe the rules to the students and you can tell them you are not the author and uncover them the consequences.

But, I need to clear this doubt for myself, when I need to start and teach a class as TA or in some other position.

So is this a hypothetical question? As in, you're not actually a TA yet?

Note: Attendance is a requirement for the course. A person with above
  75% of attendance is eligible to take final exams. A person with a
  percentage of attendance between 65 and 75 is required to submit a
  medical certificate. A person with less than 65% of attendance is not
  allowed to write the exam and has to do recourse.

In my experience as a student in the US, TAs were Teaching Assistants--they were responsible for running science labs, discussion groups, and tutoring sessions for a specific professor. The quote above makes it sound like you'd be in a similar situation. So ask your supervising professor how they want you to handle it, or ask your fellow TAs what that professor prefers.
If it's up to you, find a method for taking attendance that works for you. Assigned seats, roll call, exit tickets, retinal scanners, whatever. The last university I taught at actually implemented a custom Bluetooth-based attendance app that we were all supposed to use. Any student more than 15 meters away or not logged in at the same time as the instructors was counted absent and actually lost points. I've also seen QR codes posted by the doors that linked to Google forms.
If you're responsible for making the quizzes and exams, warn your students that a certain percentage of the questions (like 10%, nothing too high) will come purely from lecture and won't explicitly be in the textbook/posted notes. Or give some sort of incentive for perfect attendance. One school I've taught at had a limit on how many A's and B's I could award--I often awarded the higher grade to the student with the better attendance because they put forth more of an effort.
How do you feel about your fellow students when they arrive late? How do you feel about the current policies you've experienced? What seems least disruptive/most fair to you? When you start TA-ing, your feelings may change. As an instructor, my annoyance reflects the disruption the latecomer causes. I really don't care most of the time. But if I have to wait for them to catch up, or if they ask questions/interrupt me to discuss something we covered before they arrived, then I get annoyed.

Treat attendance and lateness separately. When I was a TA in graduate school, part of the students' grade was a participation grade, and this grade was given somewhat subjectively. In my class it was related to several factors, including lateness. Every day they would get some amount of participation credit, out of 10, say. The amount I would deduct from their total ten points of participation was proportional to how late they showed up. They could redeem themselves by participating in other ways. This made it so that showing up late was basically a handicap worth avoiding.
Attendance, on the other hand, is binary. If they don't show up, they should get no points for attendance that day. In my days as a TA, there weren't points related to attendance though, that's just how I would treat it if I were you.

I solved a similar issue in a different way when I was a graduate TA, though of course it was a number of years ago.
I had been reading about the benefits of quizzes to help reinforce previously learned material (I think it was from the high school teacher and Calculus, but time and memory...). So, at the start of each class I had a < 5 minute quiz that asked about topics from the previous week. As a side-effect (though there was some time dilation; we didn't have such nice things as in-class electronic scoring), I was able to find areas where I didn't communicate a topic effectively. I could then -- prior to a mid-term or final exam -- circle back to topics where a majority of the class had issues to try to address this gap between what I had intended to communicate and what the class actually perceived.
I tied 15% of the final grade to these quizzes (with adjustment when it was clear I had failed in some fashion, but it was essentially 1%/week), so failing to show-up to take the quiz would have an adverse outcome for the student's final grade. But I also had an "attendance" record, and those who arrived late were, in effect, excluded from the count.
Now, I am of the belief that Oscar Wilde was wrong -- timeliness is an important aspect of society; one simply cannot go through life being forever tardy to meetings in the professional world. Ergo, tardiness was equivalent to missing a part of the class, and would have been marked absent (and the grade would have also been adversely affected).
I agree that taking attendance per se is kind of obnoxious, but if I fail to make a meeting with a client (or am late), there are repercussions for that action. I do not see a reason that a penalty applied to the late student should be different.

Follow your instructions to the letter.
Attendance is binary. They either attended or did not attend. If they turn up to your class and the class has a non-zero length of time left, then they attended.
Lateness is neither here nor there. You've been asked to record attendance, not lateness.

Useless anecdote:
In the 1990s, my school was one of the first in the country (UK) to record attendance electronically.
Unfortunately, attendance was recorded in the first few minutes, and any late arrival was recorded as being absent for the entire half-day period.
I didn't agree with this policy.
Therefore, in the 1990s, I became one of the first in the country to hack their electronic attendance records.

Mark them as being present, for fire evacuation purposes.
None of the other answers I can see mention one good reason to take attendance: to produce a list of people present, so that in the event of a fire evacuation, it allows the university officials responsible for managing the evacuation to produce a list of missing individuals by comparing the attendance list with the list of people present at the fire evacuation site. That way, the fire fighters can know if they need to look for anyone in danger, and possibly where they would need to look for them.
As a result, if a student were to arrive late, but not be marked as present, it's possible that they might be lost if a fire evacuation were to take place, in which case it's possible that the university might be liable for an injuries they suffered as a result of the university's failure to do due diligence.

Personally, I have used two strategies when taking attendance.

Taking attendance at a random point in the class. Usually at least 15 minutes into the class. Try to do it in a natural stopping point between topics. If this is a small enough class, call out all names and mark the attendance then. If someone was not present during this time, they will be marked absent. I find that a random point works better since if you made it fixed (say, 10 minutes after class starts), this will encourage more students to be a few minutes late.
Passing a sign-in sheet between the students. This will be less disruptive to the flow of the class (since you won't have to pause to take attendance). The latecomer may not look for the sheet when they come in late. They will have to wait till the end of the class to add their name. This method is prone to student manipulation since someone may mark their friend as attending even when they are absent.

If you are a competent teacher, don't worry about recording the attendance (students dont want to miss your classess). If you get fired for violating the policy, there are plenty of jobs for competent people.
If you are not a competent teacher, go ahead and record attendance, block late comers, etc. This the way for you to keep your job inspite of being incompetent.
Whatever you do, remember that the money you are eating is coming from the fee paid by the students!

@scaaahu : I did not know its for a TA. My advice is for a full time Lecturer. I don't know whats this TA business. I have not seen any such thing in my college.

The very original version of this question indicates that the OP is a TA. when I need to start and teach a class as TA or in some other position. Since you now know it, I'll delete my previous comment.

This is up to you to decide. You are the teacher. Follow your compass.

Well. There are rules. Follow them. If you think they are not good, try to change/cancel them.

No. Follow your compass. If you are not appreciated, then go to some other place where you will be more appreciated.

-1: This is just anarchy.  You should clearly change the rules if they're wrong, or learn why they're right if you can't change them.

@UKMonkey I don't agree. There is a larger risk for anarchy if you provoke a student protest or teachers strike than if you allow some freedom in interpreting and bending the rules if they are strict.

Having a few teachers take the students side can be a big moral boost for your uni. Just saying.

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text:
Is it a good idea to submit an application for a senior (associate) faculty position, when only qualified for junior (assistant) level position?
I finished my Ph.D. two years ago and currently doing a Postdoc. I am now applying for faculty positions at the rank of Assistant professor. With my publications and research record, I believe I would be considered for Assistant professor positions.
I saw a call for a faculty position at the rank of an Associate professor or a Professor in a field closely related to my research. The wording on the application is for a senior professor (i.e., evidence of an established research group with external funding).
I am considering applying. My questions are:
1- Would search committees consider junior researchers for Assistant professor positions, in the case of no suitable senior applicants, instead of the posted more senior positions?
2- Are there any negatives to applying? For example, is it possible that I won't be considered for future positions?
3- I assume the worst thing that could happen is my application not being considered, which I am fine with since it is a long shot. Is my assumption correct?
I would appreciate comments from members with experience in search committees!

Before making a formal application, I suggest that you ask them whether they would accept an application for a junior position. Their rules might permit or forbid it. In the US, however, faculty job advertisements need to be honest so that the field is open to all qualified candidates.
But an informal ask would be appropriate. If you let them know of your qualifications as well as your interest it might be possible that they issue another advertisement that would apply to you.
But if they don't get enough potentially qualified applicants for the ad as stated, they might feel the need to do that anyway.
My best guess, though, is that you won't be successful unless, perchance, you have a lot of funding you can bring with you. That, and the ability to provide leadership sounds like their main need. Good luck, though.

Anecdote. I know of one case from long ago where an R1 university wanted to hire one of its postdocs to a permanent position. So, they wrote a nationally published, highly tailored, ad that actually described this person with just about every characteristic he had except his name - very specific requirements. They got (IIRC) four applications out of many that were an arguably better fit than the desired person. He got the job (and prospered), but it surprised everyone involved.

I think HR will screen the application out before the committee even sees it, since it does not meet the posted requirement. Should the department want to repost with looser requirements that would be up to them.