Why is attendance taken in most classes? Why should this affect my grade?
Class policies that count attendance as part of a student’s grade should be thrown out.
I can understand why most classes take attendance for underclassmen. Underclassmen need to understand that college is different from high school and that nobody is there to get them up in the morning.
However, as a senior graduating in December, I am fed up with teachers counting my attendance as part of my grade. I am 22 years old and have been here long enough to know my responsibilities. I have a good GPA and I know what needs to get done. If I get a C because I did not know the material because I didn’t attend class, that is totally my fault.
However, if I get a C because I had an 87 percent test average and a 30 percent attendance grade, that’s absurd. My tuition has already been paid and the teachers are going to get paid whether I show up or not.
Also, why should I get out of bed when all the teachers do are read the slides that they put on the Internet while I think of other things that I could be doing? I can just print them out the night before a test, study them in my bed or wherever, go to the test, make my B and then forget the material because I didn’t learn and I wasn’t taught the material. I memorized it.
This is not directed at this particular semester. It has been a long time coming. During my time here, I have had some professors that I thought were really good and that I actually learned from. Why? They made me think while I was in class. They used the chalkboard instead of the convenient means of Powerpoint slides the whole semester.
Now, I am sure that most of our parents or whoever it is that paid our tuition fees want and expect us to attend our classes. However, I also think that most of them would be pretty disappointed in what we actually do in some of our classes, such as sleep, doodle, visibly not pay attention and talk. If the only way to get students to come to class is to grade them or penalize them, then the teachers need to look in the mirror and rethink the way they conduct class.
Patrick Nuber is a senior marketing major.