Stupid Attendence Policy

[Rageaholic]

Really? So knowing the material well means you can skip class? I am taking a class right now that consists of "learning" about things that we have had beaten into our skulls since we were young. These things I am "learning"? Using sunscreen, what a balanced diet is, that I need to exercise, wear a seatbelt, etc. I have to take this class in order to graduate, as does anyone within the University of Wisconsin system, whether they are where I am or in Mad Town or Waters of White. You know what I do? I put on my big girl panties and attend this class because I want to graduate. I don't get my degree unless this class is passed. I bitch about having to take it later.

And let's look outside of what we need. Let's look at other people too. Every class has a cap on how many students it can take. By enrolling yourself in a class, that means one less seat in the classroom for another student. If you don't attend class, then that seat could have been filled by someone who actually wanted to be there. I have a friend who is currently taking a course that I wanted, but couldn't get into because by the time I could enroll, the class was filled. People don't show up to that class. One of those seats could have been mine.

Just an fyi, I hate gen eds as much as the next person. However, since I have to take them, I just do it.

The only reason I'm hearing for the policy is that I'm robbing other potential students of a seat. If it's anything like some of my accounting instructors, that may be a favor to them. Sometimes, the class or instructor just sucks and there's no way to know ahead of time. And as I've said many many times in this thread, it's not like I'm totally slacking off and getting nothing out of the class. I've missed a few classes when I was at community college (enough that would have failed me at the U) and still managed to do the assignments and pass with at least a 3.0. If I can do the same stuff on my own and still pass, I think I've spent my time well in the class.

Aside from that, I'm not even hearing any actual defense of this policy. All I'm hearing is "You have to do it so suck it up". That does not make the policy any less bullshit. Hell, you even admitted that you hate gen eds and I hate them too. And yes, I do take them, but it's because I don't have a choice. Same thing was this stupid attendance policy.

[telecom_goddess]

People are saying "go to class and suck it up" because it's NOT a bullshit policy. There is no point in having a class at all if you aren't going to even be there for it. You signed up to go so just go......and to require attendance is not bullshit.

[McDreidel09]

While I go to class every day (unless something comes up that keeps from class such as family matters, sickness,death), I love it when professors give a small reward for attending every class. My Intro to Public Speaking professor gave us 20 bonus points for having a perfect attendance. It especially was important because a once a week two hour 8am class.

For some of my classes, they have a much stricter attendance policy. My Math of Finance and Business class (since this is a a departmental thing) requires that every absence is University excused. If you are sick, you must report to the Health Center (and from what I hear, they won't fill anything out because too many students used the excused absences for hangovers, but that could be a rumor). If there is a crisis, it must be reported to the University Crisis Center. If you have a field trip for a class, then you must give them a sheet of paper that they hand out during these classes, stating that you will not be there due to the trip and the paper must be signed by each professor.

I think the more lenient professors are the English professors because thus far, if I talk to one of them ahead of time about a pending thing, they are pretty cool with it and will give me those days notes and whatever work we will do in that class.

Speaking of which, that reminds me to talk to my Black Literature in America professor to remind her that I will not be attending class on Friday so I can take care of my sister after her wisdom tooth surgery while my mother works.

[Rageaholic]

People are saying "go to class and suck it up" because it's NOT a bullshit policy. There is no point in having a class at all if you aren't going to even be there for it. You signed up to go so just go......and to require attendance is not bullshit.

That's assuming the majority of learning takes place in the classroom. In my experience, most of the course work is homework that's on the syllibus and tests which are out of the textbook. Some times, there is no in class work outside of tests (which are also out of the textbook). My accounting class is kind of like that. It's all lecturing out of the book, which not only makes coming to class pointless, but boring as hell since this guy can't teach. So outside of tests, why should I come to class? Oh yeah, because some douchebag in charge thinks I need to in order to pass, and if I don't show up, I flunk out! Makes real sense to me.

[Greenday]

Your classes suck. We didn't use the books in the majority of my classes. And if we did use them, most of the time it was just an extra.

[Eisa]

I don't disagree that you need to come to class. But I DO think that strict of an attendance policy, that you can only miss 3 times or you'll flunk, is ridiculous. Things come up. Weather, illness, tragedy, accidents...you could be the most conscientious student in the world and still end up missing more than 3 times.

[linguist]

Things come up. Weather, illness, tragedy, accidents...you could be the most conscientious student in the world and still end up missing more than 3 times.

Hence the "unless there's extenuating circumstances" part of the post. The policy is in place to keep students from skipping just because they don't feel like going. If there's documentable reason to miss the class, the absence can be excused.

[Plaidman]

I think it's in part of many of the grants, loans, etc for paying for a student schooling, states that students cant miss more then X days. So if they miss it, they lose the grant and have to pay the school. Since most can't afford it, they just get dropped rather then deal with a student's promises of staying in school or paying it later etc.

That's how my school works anyway.

[AdminAssistant]

If a student never shows up or stops coming to class at all then we report them to the Office of Financial Aid. (We usually wait until after a major test and report those who don't even come to that.)

[fireheart17]

Attendance for classes in my case depends on the topic convenor and the topic in question. These are the variations I've heard of:

-Miss a class, you can submit a 500-1000 word paper on the readings-of-the-day. (usually done when the tutorial weighting is 10%)
-Miss (x) number of classes you're fine, after that, any other missed classes result in a penalty (2-10%, so for instance, if you miss five classes without extenuating circumstances, it's an auto-fail)
-Miss (X) number of classes, you're fine, after that, the weighting of your exam goes up by 2% (so if you miss 10 classes, your final exam weighting is around 50%.). Other variations of that also include dropping the weight of the essays to compensate for that exam mark.
-Miss classes, if you miss too many, you have to sit an exam and the weighting of the paper drops. (If you attend enough classes, you don't have to sit the exam)

My French class was a little tricker-I just had to attend 50% of the classes.

Of those, I reckon variations 2 and 3 would be the better options really....

[muses_nightmare]

At my school, which is a private institution rather than a university or somesuch, if you missed more than 3 of the same class you were put on a 7 day academic leave and you had to have meetings and such with academic directors to see if you should still be in the school or not. To be fair, each quarter was 11 weeks, so 11 classes of each course, missing 4 is a fairly significant chunk of that, especially at the pace we had to work.

I believe it also could affect student loans as well as you had to attend X number of hours of class each week to keep your funding.

Though having a limit of missing 3 of any of your classes seems a bit harsh to me, I mean, if you have to spend a week out sick it's possible that you could be screwed, depending on whether you can get a doctors note I suppose and whether the school would accept it.

[Rageaholic]

Your classes suck. We didn't use the books in the majority of my classes. And if we did use them, most of the time it was just an extra.

I wish more of my classes were like that. Textbooks are fine, but there is only so much knowledge you can gain from them. Same thing is true with lectures. After a while, you just get lost.

I think it's in part of many of the grants, loans, etc for paying for a student schooling, states that students cant miss more then X days. So if they miss it, they lose the grant and have to pay the school. Since most can't afford it, they just get dropped rather then deal with a student's promises of staying in school or paying it later etc.

That's how my school works anyway.

That actually makes sense and could be a reason for this. Maybe they feel the standard should be applied fairly to everyone (regardless of income) so they make this blanket rule. Of course, I think it would be better to be more lieniant for everyone and not strict.