“As the spring semester draws closer to its end, students are under a great deal of pressure. Some may be worried that a rough start is unredeemable. Others worry that a challenging final will thwart a great start. While those are bad enough, beating unfair attendance policies is worse.”
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As the spring semester draws closer to its end, students are under a great deal of pressure.

Some may be worried that a rough start is unredeemable. Others worry that a challenging final will thwart a great start.

While those are bad enough, beating unfair attendance policies is worse.

Some professors at the University of Akron have strict rules for showing up. For example, one professor on campus will instantly fail a student for missing more than four days.

The professor also will mark a student absent if she is not present to sign the attendance slip at the beginning of class.

Put bluntly, these policies are total horse crap.

It’s easy to see why the professor implements such a stupid rule. His class is probably boring.

Consider the following: Does he ever go engage the class in interesting discussion? No. Does he just stand at the podium summarizing everything he assigned for homework? Yes. Finally, does he give any information that students wouldn’t have found in the book themselves while doing the homework? Hell no.

So, with that said, what is the only reason to go to class? A lame attendance policy.

Students don’t need someone to summarize homework for 75 minutes. All the prof has to do is start a creative, thoughtful class discussion.

Summarizing the homework doesn’t help on the exam, which inevitably contains information the class never went over due to a lack of intelligent discussion.

Since it is evident that poor teaching skills are somewhat to blame for a professor’s use of attendance policies, it’s not surprising how strict they are when enforcing them. There are absolutely no valid excuses for missing classes, which include but are not limited to having to go to court, seeing a doctor, defending from a zombie invasion, dealing with bad weather, attending a family funeral and contracting the plague.

Just you wait, professor. One day someone will get the plague and we’ll see just how insistent you are that they attend. But seriously, there is no reason for the policy to be that strict.

If a student has a doctor’s note or a document of some kind verifying his whereabouts, then there shouldn’t be a problem and the absence should be excused without there being an issue.

Overall, attendance policies are just a way for lame, boring and uncreative professors to get students to attend their dismal class. By enforcing their policies so rigorously, they unfairly force students into compromising positions concerning their academic well being.

There is no valid reason a student should fail a class based solely on attendance.

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