College students are adults with lives to maintain and should have the right to choose how to allocate their time. Kennesaw State professors who incorporate attendance into their grading policies are just trying to fill seats in their classes and not trying to get students to understand the content.
There is a difference between being physically present and being mentally present. A professor can force students to sit in a class, but they cannot force anyone to pay attention to the lecture. Students are often watching Netflix or shopping on their computers, which candistract others that are actually trying to pay attention. Having students in a class who do not want to be there can be detrimental to the people who actually want to learn.
Many people claim that when students skip class, they are wasting their time and money. This is often not true. Many students must balance full-time jobs, full course loads and social lives throughout the school year. Sitting in a class where the professor is teaching directly from the textbook every day could be a hindrance to these students.
Between 70 and 80 percent of undergraduate college students are now working while in college while around 35 percent work full-time jobs, according to Scholarship America.
Some professors take their attendance policies too seriously. These professors would rather penalize their students for their absences than work with them so that they can succeed in class. If a student is sick for three classes, they may have used up all their allowed absences. If a student has a flat tire or gets into a wreck, they may be penalized.
KSU has recently started encouraging more professors to enforce attendance policies. Because of this, there is an increased potential for some students to come to class sick because most of the time some professors will not let them retake assignments later.
“The most annoying classes that have mandatory attendance are gen. ed. classes,” junior media and entertainment major Abby Yake said.
When taking general education courses, students are just trying to get to their major classes and have to check the box of general education first. These classes specifically should not have attendance policies because they are often beginner-level classes thatare taught from the textbook.
If a student had an A in a class and their grade drops drastically because of their attendance, KSU has let that student down. If a student can make an A in a class without attending, they should be allowed to do so. It is the professor’s job to make sure that their class is a necessity.
KSU students have every right to handle their schoolwork on their own time and in their own way. After all, they are the ones paying thousands of dollars to attend this institution. The university should consider revising the attendance policies, having confidence that students will responsibly show up for their best interests.
