To Skip or not to Skip?
I recently had the pleasure of appearing in court for a minor traffic violation. My court appearance was scheduled last Tuesday, at the same time as one of my classes. Fortunately for me, the judge listened to my explanation and dismissed my case. Fortunately for my academic life, my professor understood that sometimes, between attending class and doing homework, life happens. Had I missed my court appearance, I would have had to pay an expensive fine, but in some of my classes this semester, a missed class would result in the price of a lowered grade.
Concordia’s attendance policy is made clear in the Student Handbook, which states “regular attendance and participation in class is critical to a student’s success at Concordia College. Because any absence, excused or unexcused, detracts from the learning experience, students are expected to attend all classes.” For students involved in “college-sponsored activities,” the rules change to accommodate extracurricular events occurring during class. The handbook states, “In any class, under normal circumstances, students should not miss more than 10 percent of the total scheduled class periods because of a college-sponsored activity.” Ten percent is roughly the equivalent of missing three classes held M/W/F and T/H and missing one night class over the course of the semester.
I believe it’s wonderful that Concordia’s attendance policy provides leeway for students involved in extra-curricular activities and rightly does so; however, the attendance policy should also make room for the rest of us. I completely agree that class attendance is a critical element to academic success, and that students should make every effort to attend class on a regular basis, missing class as minimally as possible. Still, Concordia’s attendance policy fails to respect that the unexpected happens, and that sometimes making it to class is both unrealistic and difficult.
In my five and counting semesters at Concordia, my professors have graciously understood my extenuating circumstances that have resulted in missing class, but this semester has been more of a challenge. While to date, I have only missed a single class to attend court, all four of my professors have different rules on attending class, which causes me to sometimes mix-up attendance policies, stress over missing class, and more than once, go to class feeling ill out of concern for my grade.
My professors aren’t doing anything wrong in creating their personal attendance policy—in fact, the handbook gives them the freedom to do so, but sometimes this freedom is taken too far. One of my classes’ attendance policies has been especially harsh. Though one of my favorite courses this semester, if a student is more than 20 minutes late to class, we will be marked absent. I can understand that walking into class late is a distraction, but this policy gives me the student—running 20 minutes late—no incentive to attend the remainder of class since I am considered not there. Thus far, not a single student has come late to class, so I suppose this policy is working; however, I don’t believe college students should be made to fear coming late to class when life happens.
I begin my Tuesday and Thursday mornings in a 10:30 communications class. Since this is my first class of the day and I live off campus, sometimes, no matter how early I leave my apartment, finding a parking space is near impossible.
Periling the ice and cold, I generally end up parking two blocks away, and sometimes, when I don’t walk quickly enough, walk into class…late! In these circumstances, I cause a distraction but attend class because I am considered present—I have an incentive to attend even if I am a little late.
In short, developing a more uniform attendance policy with the interests of the busy life of a college student in mind would both simplify my life as a student and my life in general. I’m not advocating skipping class or designing attendance policies so flexible that students can miss class at will, but making the “10-percent rule” apply to all students would be a good start.
