Since my arrival on campus two weeks ago, I have been surprised to find that SMU has made checking attendance a mandatory part of daily classroom procedure. Even though I have heard that there are a few professors unwilling to conform to new university rules, I have been highly unfortunate to have only one of these professors as my own. In my opinion, taking attendance is a waste of valuable classroom time and although it may encourage students to be in class, if someone wants to skip then the threat of being marked absent is not enough to make them go.
I wonder how many universities actually require their professors to take time out of their teaching to do roll call? To take attendance in huge lecture halls of public universities would be crazy and take entirely too much time. Since college students are legally adults shouldn’t they be able to decide for themselves if they want to attend class?
To read SMU President R. Gerald Turner’s comments on taking attendance
14 comments:
I completley agree Paris, my economics class has approximately 100 students and when the professor calls roll it uses about twenty minutes of valuable class time. Students should be liable for their own decision about attending class. Professors should not have to waste precious class-time in order to call out everybody’s name. We've spent twelve years worrying about attendance in primary school and now that we're in college it should be up to us. Students are only hurting themselves by not going to class but it should still be their choice. If a student wants to miss class then let them, they will be the one suffering. But please don't treat us like we're in high school again.
I agree with this post completely. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him/her drink. Even if the students are there, if they aren’t interested in the material, they still won't do well in the course if attendance is the issue. It is time to stop holding our hands! In the adult world, we will not have such safe-guards. It is time to develop the skill set of fully functioning, and self-reliant adults.
I definitely agree with this blog. I can only think of one of my classes in which the professor does not take roll. Some use a sign-in sheet which takes up less class time but is still very distracting. I think that we are all old enough now to understand the consequences for our actions. We should know that if we don't go to class, it may be fun for a little while, but then we're going to have to be responsible for knowing the information we missed. In the long run, not so fun. I have also heard of people signing in for their friends who wanted to sleep in. I think this is obviously easily done but completely unfair. However, the people who go to class everyday and actually sign in themselves will have the advantage of hearing the professor explain the material and have their own notes. Overall, the attendance here at SMU does make me feel like I'm being treated like a high school student and I think we're old enough to be given more freedom...and the repsosibility that goes along with that.
I never thought attendance would be a requirement in the college classroom. My professors tend to pass around a sheet of paper that the student will sign in with. It has not really been a disruption and taking attendance definitely encourages a student to be in class. I feel that attending class is a very important part of succeeding in college. One must make the effort to attend classes because then they will learn and become more knowledgeable.
Overall, it is the student’s decision whether they attend class or not. In the long run, it is beneficial and will help the student become more educated and get a whole college experience. College should be about class and earning an education.
Hey Paris. I agree with everyone on this subject. I feel that college is a four year process in which we attempt to find ourselves as we grow up and become independent people. Taking attendance just really doesn't exhibit this. Of course, it is nice to have a good participation grade but I have teachers that don't even factor your attendance into the grades. My economics teacher doesn't take attendance for the class of nearly 70 students but she does threaten us with pop quizzes. Great job, Paris! Way to raise awareness!
I agree. I am also in the economics class where the professor spent 20 minutes taking roll and it was a waste of time. However, I think that the students who actually care and never miss class should be recognized and even recieve class participation points. It may seem pointless now, but hopefully professors are taking account for who is there and who is not, and maybe in the end we will have an extra point or two for always showing up to class.
Amen, Paris Hilton!
My Econ professor spent literally 30 minutes calling the roll the other day. It's ridiculous. We are college students and adults. We can deal with ourselves. Every college student should be able to get themselves up for class in the morning. If not, oh well. It's no one's fault but their own.
I understand that teachers might want their students to do good in school and that taking attendance is for the students' benefit, but come on! It's no one's problem but our own if we don't show up for class.
I thought college was supposed to be the real world. Not an extension of high school...
During high school I ended up missing a lot of classes because I get sick easily; I learned how much I can miss and how to make up the work. Waking up the other morning feeling rather under the weather, I would have liked to get a few more hours of sleep. However, remembering the strict attendance policies held in high regard by my professors, I had to get up and go to class. If college is a time about becoming more independant, should we not be allowed to make our own decisions about going to class (and potentially have to learn from the consequences of our own actions)?
Everything mentioned is so true. I too was shocked as I entered all but one class and heard each one's attendance policy. I started thinking "What?" In high school attendance is something to scare you and it seems to be the same here. Maybe as we move up in seniority it will get better and the professors won't care either way. It was a scary thought when I heard my professors say things like "Three absences and you're out" or "If you miss class more than two times you must drop the class and won't receive credit". It's like three strikes and you're out. I can understand that professors would be totally abject to teaching an empty classroom but the way I see it most of us hopefully, are here to learn anyway so it should be up to us.
I agree Paris.
The thing I don't fully understand is why the university thinks attendance is so vital in the first place. All my life I have been told “The professor isn’t going to care if you show up, it’s up to you,” and now all of a sudden I am in college and that is not the case at all.
This whole college process has been completely different than I expected. I don’t understand why so many of the letters I got from SMU were addressed to my parents. Did anyone else notice that? If I am supposed to be the big adult taking the “next big step,” then how come I am not the one receiving the mail?
Paris has a great post here and I appreciate the fact that she even put a link in her post to the Faculty web page where the administration explains WHY they are telling the faculty to start taking attendance. Did anybody read the rationale for this new emphasis on taking attendance? In case you didn't read it, I'll fill you in: It's part of the recommendations of the SMU Task Force on Drug and Alchohol Abuse. The goal of taking attendance is to make students come to class rather than sleeping off their drinking and whatever from the night before. For this same reason, professors have been urged to give quizzes and tests on Fridays. The year of the three deaths causes SMU to wake up to the party-school atmosphere around here and attempt to make the student body more academically focused. But as one of you commented, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Or not drink, as the case may be. But this policy is supposed to be for the good of those who are not mature and self-disciplined enough to care about their education.
I can understand everyone's frustration, but I assure you, not all the professors take roll, though many who have freshmen in their classes do. It's a safeguard against failure and isolation, and yes, it's annoying. But there are plenty of others who don't bother. Personally I don't care whether they take roll because I'm going to be in class anyway.
I can completely relate to how you feel Paris and everyone who left posts. While I think it is unnecessary for our Professors to take attendance because we’re in college, I also feel like the process isn’t consistent and is fool proof. In my Psychology class my professor takes attendance, while in my roommate’s class her teacher doesn’t so she doesn’t go to class but I am forced to. Meanwhile, in my business ethics class the guys have developed a system of signing in whoever couldn’t make it to class at 9am that day. My teacher in this class passes around a sign-in sheet to take attendance without spending quality class time to do so. I think that the reason that attendance is mandatory, which I learned from clicking on the link, is a good one – but it’s not exactly working the way the people who thought up this new rule had intended. I understand making class mandatory so that maybe students will not go out on school nights, and if they do they won’t lose control because they’ll have to wake up early for class. But, it is college, and like someone stated we have always heard that no one was going to care if you went to class it is your responsibility. Class time is crucial, at least for me, my teachers lecture beyond the book and test on the lecture material so I can’t miss class. If I do choose to miss a class I lose out on the information and hurt my own chances of getting an A in the class. Regardless of taking attendance to make people to go to class, if that is the real reason for this new requirement, people need to go to class in order to pass the class. So, I don’t think taking attendance is a good idea; people who care about class will go to class and those who don’t, will not. But, people who put the effort in will have a better outcome.
A friend of mine that attends UNT told me on his first day that he had a class with 315 people in it and that they do not take attendance and I was shocked because the largest class I am in contains around 30 people and the teacher calls my name out everyday. So I agree, it is ridiculous that SMU actually checks daily to see if you're in class.
And the truth is that it should not matter whether or not we attend class or not to the professors because we are paying thousands of dollars for our education, so the choice of how we plan to utilize our very expensive education should be up to us.
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