The University Faculty Senate decides your fate today.
At 3 p.m., the senate will decide whether University professors will get the right to control your grade based on class attendance.
I can’t predict whether or not the resolution – titled “Including Class Attendance Among Course Grading Criteria” – will pass, but what I can say is that it shouldn’t. Though if it does, it is nothing to worry about for most people.
The resolution asks that class attendance be included in the criteria the University can currently grade on. Right now, students can be graded solely on academic performance.
“The policy just allows professors to take [attendance] into account,” said Louis Day, professor of mass communication and co-author of the resolution.
But if the resolution passes professors would have the choice to decide if they wish to grade attendance or not.
Day said there are many reasons why professors should be allowed to grade attendance. One of the biggest is that the “state of Louisiana subsidizes the educational costs of all LSU students and has a right to expect respect for its investment in this education.”
He has a good point. Many University students are on TOPS and waste money by skipping class. But it still doesn’t justify grading on attendance.
Day also said the resolution will put the University on par with other regional schools, like University of Alabama and University of Georgia, while also making it clear the University values class attendance.
While there are legitimate reasons to allow professors to give attendance grades, there are more reasons against it.
First, professors already take attendance. “Participation” grades are synonymous with “attendance” grades, so it does nothing for professors who already grade this.
Also, grading attendance requires professors to keep extra files, so I’m willing to bet those who don’t do it have a reason not to – and they are not about to start taking attendance because of a resolution.
But then there are the few who will change their ways. There will certainly be that cold-hearted professor who decides to start passing around a packet during class out of spite, asking students to check their names off.
While it may make more students attend class, this leads to an inordinate amount of students surfing StumbleUpon while signing their friends in, adding nothing but an excess of body heat and carbon dioxide to the classroom.
Leave class to those who want to be there.
I’d say it’s actually better sometimes when the slackers skip – you wind up in class with people who want to learn.
Finally, we’re adults. We are choosing to be in college, so we shouldn’t be required to be in class for fear of making of a bad grade.
If we want to get something out of college, we’ll show up for class. And if we don’t, we’ll probably pay for it somewhere down the line. Though the resolution shouldn’t pass, most of us have no reason to be too angry about it if it does.
The teachers who have participation grades will probably start calling it “attendance.” No harm done here.
The resolution would make it the professor’s choice to take attendance, so those who don’t do it now aren’t likely to start.
If you go to class like you’re supposed to, you won’t be affected. In the end, it’s easy to understand why some professors would want to be able to grade attendance, but it undermines the idea of college.
If we’re going to teach people to make choices, why start with something as basic as regularly attending a college class?
You don’t need to grade attendance to know people who never attend class will probably fail. And if they don’t screw up at some point, they’re probably geniuses.
Moreover, grades are reflective of academic performance, not attendance. That’s the way it should stay.
Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_cgrillot.
—- Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected].