By Matt Mattingly
Attendance requirements are an insult to every student at this university. The attendance policy indicates that students are unable to manage their own educations, and is rooted more in the capricious personal feelings of professors than administrative necessity.
The issue gets ridiculous when, in many classes, a student forfeits a letter grade after two absences. I assume that, having worked for years to earn a Ph.D. or master’s degree, professors are angered by half-full classrooms. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that a professor’s principal job is to impart material through lectures, supplemented by a textbook, and to offer coursework evaluating our mastery of this material. For professors reading this, I know it is probably a significant blow to your egos that some days, I’d rather stay home and watch reruns of Laguna Beach than attend your lectures. But if this doesn’t impede my performance, then it is your wounded pride, and not your concern for my education, that is the reason for the infantilizing attendance requirements.
I challenge A&S professors to present valid reasons for requiring attendance when any discerning student can read the textbook and perform well on the tests while still avoiding half-hearted lectures and mind-numbing student contributions. Perhaps it is true that an absent student misses out on insights unavailable in the text, but, accordingly, that is only a reason to pity such a student for the lost opportunity, not to punish him.
No matter how you slice it, students pay for their college education, and it would seem sensible to expect that, like a consumer of any other commodity, they retain the power to govern their enjoyment of the product. Sadly, chapter six of the Redbook, U of L’s governing article, provides professors with all the wiggle room they need. In article six, section two, the document states, “The authority for the determination of grades in any course shall rest with the faculty of the academic unit offering the course.”
Consequently, the student senate needs to take a stand on this issue, and move for the amending of these bylaws that grant professors carte blanche authority to penalize absences. I don’t propose that we revise the attendance policy so that students can slack off and become a nuisance to professors after repeat absences, but so that students can again seize the most valuable instruction traditionally imparted by a college education: an appreciation for autonomy and self-motivation.
We can establish a policy that allows for emergencies – and does not deduct a letter grade after two absences of a class that meets 35-40 times in a semester – that will still be amenable to professors’ needs. This is an important issue to students for reasons other than the right of self-regulation. Grades reduced by absences affect GPA in a manner unrelated to actual performance in the class in question, and our GPAs affect our future.
Professors, remind us that we’re adults capable of managing the stresses of college life. It’s high time we were given the chance.
Matt Mattingly is a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a columnist for The Louisville Cardinal. E-mail him at: opinion@louisvillecardinal.com
