Students and professors share opinions on attendance policies

For Clark Chilson, an associate professor in the department of religious studies, deciding whether or not to enforce a class attendance policy is “an internal negotiation between two desires that are incongruent.”

“The first is the desire to give students freedom and let them take responsibility for their own learning,” Chilson said. “The second, which can conflict with the first, is my desire to execute my mission as a teacher, which is to help students acquire valuable knowledge and intellectual skills that will enrich their lives.”

With Pitt’s varying class sizes and structures, attendance policies can differ from class to class. Although skipping class is a common practice among students, many agree that even if a professor doesn’t mandate attendance in lectures, sitting in on lectures is more valuable than reading or listening to them afterward. 

Fred Shaw, a visiting lecturer in the English department, said he allows three unexcused absences per semester, but “less if the class meets once per week.”

“The University likes for us to have guidelines for students and that any issues that arrive aren’t dealt with arbitrarily,” Shaw said. 

Shaw said that he tries to be “understanding” about student absences.

“Over the course of 16 years of teaching, I’ve always been open to understanding student absence. Is it the 8 a.m. class time? Or is there something going on that’s bigger?” Shaw said. “So rather than being punitive, the policy makes students be a bit more vulnerable, to realize they don’t need to suffer in silence or deal with grade anxiety when someone demonstrates that they want to get caught up and are ready to engage again with classwork.” 

Shaw said he recognizes students are busy and have other things going on outside the classroom, which is why he always tries to consider “the humanity of the student.”

“Students have so much going on that aside from them just blowing class off. Lack of attendance can be a symptom of a bigger issue that often the student will reach out to see what options and what help is available,” Shaw said. “They don’t always get back on track, but it at least gives me some understanding that student’s lives are bigger than any classroom.”

Chilson said that up until the pandemic in the spring of 2020, he “almost always” required attendance. Chilson said that he currently requires 10 in-class assignments, and students have about 12 chances to complete these assignments. 

“I would prefer not to take attendance because it can increase further institutionalization of students,” Chilson said. “One sign a student is ‘institutionalized’ is that they judge their success based on how good of a grade they receive. Good grades indicate more clearly institutional recognition than learning. Students can and often do earn high grades without deep learning that will make a difference in their lives.”

Lilah Flores, a junior biology major, said while she doesn’t skip class, she doesn’t see why attendance should be mandatory for bigger classes.

“Sometimes things come up and not everyone can go to class,” Flores said. “Especially if the lectures are prerecorded and the slideshows are posted to Canvas, you can’t expect a lot of people to go.” 

Naomi Green, a sophomore English education major, said she thinks that attendance policies should “depend on the class.”

“For a lecture-based class like biology, I feel like attendance isn’t really necessary,” Green said. “For classes that require more student and teacher interactions, I think attendance policies are more important. Otherwise, students may skip more often.”

Flores, who is minoring in Spanish, said that her Spanish classes are smaller than her biology classes. Her Spanish professors require attendance more often than her biology professors.

“A lot of my bio professors don’t require attendance,” Flores said. “However, my freshman year bio professor used Top Hat to keep track of who was coming to class.”

Addie Flynn, a sophomore engineering science major, said many of her past professors have used Top Hat, a popular attendance tracking system with location services

“Top Hat definitely makes me go to class because of the location settings,” Flynn said. 

Even though TopHat inspires her to go to class because she has to be in class to put in the attendance code, Flynn said that in her experience, most professors “strongly encourage” attendance.

“While my professors this semester want students to come to class, they don’t require or keep track of attendance,” Flynn said. 

Flynn said that although she sometimes skips, which puts her at a disadvantage, she feels that going to class is “so important.”

“Everything is so much harder when you don’t go to class,” Flynn said. “Requiring attendance makes me go to class more and students definitely do better when they attend lectures. If professors don’t require attendance and some students don’t go, then there’s more resources for the people who do show up.”

Green said compared to last year, more of her professors are requiring attendance, since her education classes are smaller and involve more participation than previous classes.

“Since I’m in the school of education this year, all of my classes require attendance,” Green said. “A lot of the classes I’m taking this semester are very discussion-based and participation-heavy. In one of my classes, participation is worth 60% of my grade.”