Professors should adjust their attendance policies
College professors have an obligation to set policies. However, some policies are too absurd or too strict.
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By this, I am referring to attendance policies. These are policies in which some professors outline that a student can only miss three days of class a semester, or ones that state that only certain excuses can be used to miss class.
Most of the time, some professors’ policies disregard the most crucial “excuses” that should be allowed, such as the death of a family member or friend.
Honestly, if a tragic experience such as this happened in my own life, I would expect my professors to understand why I’m missing class.
I know all professors aren’t like this, though. Many care about their students’ personal lives and hardships and realize there are times when missing class is acceptable.
But for the ones who don’t realize this, I’d like them to think about what they would do if this same situation happened in their own lives. How would they deal with teaching a class during a difficult time?
Another point I’d like to make is that by limiting students to a certain amount of days they can miss, extra stress is added to their lives.
The chances I’ll only get sick or have a day I need off for other circumstances three times in a semester is very slim.
College students live busy lives in which their education is important. However, they also have other obligations which might force them to miss class.
Students also have days when they simply need a day off or when they simply are too ill to leave their bed. Professors need to understand this.
I know professors are worried about attendance, and they think that without strict policies regarding attendance students won’t show up.
However, if they give a student the option to show up and the option to decide if they want to learn, chances are good that students will want to attend class all on their own.
The good students will be in class unless certain circumstances arise.
Truthfully, it’s not that bad even if a “good student” misses four or five classes, because they are more than likely still doing the material and catching up when they’re not in class.
For that, they do not deserved to be penalized.
An editorial from The Baylor Lariat states, “A student’s grade should not be lowered by a letter or two for attendance. Our grades are meant to be an indication of how well we know the material — not how often we made it to class.”
That is how it should be.
Most universities still follow the rule in which students must attend at least 75 percent of all their classes, but professors just choose to embellish and add to this rule by creating an attendance policy that is simply unfeasible.
So instead of focusing so much on how often a student comes to class, professors should focus on the learning capabilities of their students and what they’re taking away from classes.
