It's likely a rather basic pass/fail class, where the professor knows from experience that students who bothered to attend throughout the semester have nearly 100% chance of passing anyway. Introductory classes are often not very difficult, and all you need to pass is to actually just care a tiny little bit about it. OP can certainly go complain to the administration, but it's not guaranteed to work, and will likely take much longer than sitting for the exam, which she's very likely to pass anyway. I agree the professor's being needlessly dickish, but ultimately the inconvenience is rather mild for OP.

It’s actually very common for schools and universities to offer some kind of exemption opportunity for finals as a way to reward students who have been there and have good grades. One year, I even had a professor cancel the final for the whole class because between being out for a week due to a hurricane and her being out for 3 weeks after being in a car accident, she didn’t see the point. However, not excusing an absence for jury duty tends to go against most school’s policies, so OP could maybe go to the dean about that.

i agree - i call it a bull, 1 day jury service? and even if there was such a thing - no one would go ahead a day before exam, they would be too busy prepping.. and they could defer it.. OP must have had advance notice and then a chance to defer or be exempted.

I allowed it because I understand it differently: she found out she has jury duty that starts the day before the exam, and obviously expects it to last more than a day, not that she found out about jury duty that starts at the drop of a hat!

it is possible. first day is usually jury selection where each one is questioned as to why they can or can not be a jurist. When OP answers this question with I am a college student in the middle of finals they would be dismissed immediately.

I got called into Jury duty/selection and didnt get selected and was told to go. Whole day taken off work and i was there max 2 hours. So its possible