EDITORIAL – Mandatory attendance policy unnecessary

It’s official now. The collegiate grace period, known as add/drop, has passed, and most… It’s official now. The collegiate grace period, known as add/drop, has passed, and most professors have already administered exams and assigned papers. Skipping class now has an added danger to it — now it matters. But should it?

As students slowly schlep into their routines for the semester, it becomes rather evident which classes would have gladly been exchanged for a few more hours of sleep if only attendance and participation weren’t mandatory. Yes, those 200-person lectures, where hardly anyone would really notice if a student or two or 20 were missing, not only include the added delight of a recitation, but some incorporate participation and attendance into final grade.

It is assumed that the stress on attendance is a part of the preparation for real world experiences. Soon bosses will take the place of professors, and the F for course failure will soon stand for “fired.” In essence, it is the student’s “job” to go to class — a job that students happen to pay for.

In-state tuition per year for a full-time, undergraduate, College of Arts and Science student at Pitt is $9,130, and out-of-state is $19,000. If a student decides to waste that money by not attending class, then that is enough suffering. The grade shouldn’t suffer as well, if most students are still able to complete assignments, turn in papers and complete readings without showing up to class for every meeting, or at all.

Considering that so many lecture-style classes are designed to accommodate the non-attendee, it is not surprising that students do not see the advantages of going to class. There is usually a PowerPoint presentation on a projection screen, and class notes and handouts are posted online. These advances in classroom technology are a valuable advantage, but they don’t draw students into the classroom. Most students just spend the time in class vigorously taking notes if there are not visual aids. There is little time to absorb the information in lectures.

And then there are recitations. Rather than having the tedious job of checking attendance sheets, teaching assistants should be focused on leading spirited discussions in recitations. If students decide to miss that, woe be unto them.

When will the campus community realize that students aren’t children? When will the bribes to encourage responsible actions stop?

The truth is that students shouldn’t come to class just because they fear missing a quiz or losing a percentage point on their final grades. Students should be drawn to class because they don’t want to miss the educational value. If the general sentiment is that the lectures are pointless, resulting in a room full of sleeping students doomed to fail anyway, then the issue is not attendance. It’s teaching methods and course relevance. And even if those things are attended to, there is no way to force a student to learn.