Digital Sextant

The Columbia Chronicle had a commentary about the attendance policy on campus.  In part, they say:

Missing class is detrimental to a student’s understanding of course material, his grades on any quizzes or due assignments and their overall course performance. In effect, missing class is its own punishment and shouldn’t be augmented by the threat of automatic grade reduction and failure.

Undergraduates (especially paying undergraduates) deserve to be responsible for their own education. Missing class is unwise, but it’s not a choice for teachers and administrators to make.

My response, posted here in case it doesn’t get published:

I am writing in response to the April 21^st editorial, “Bueller? Bueller?” The article suggests that attendance policies at Columbia are often confusing for students, and goes on to argue that there should not be attendance policies at all. I agree with the first premise and strongly disagree with the second.

Confusing attendance policies are a significant problem. The Faculty Handbook requires that instructors communicate their policies with students: “Attendance and punctuality standards must be made clear and included in every course syllabus that is distributed to your students at the beginning of each term.” Any student unclear about their course’s attendance policy should take up the issue with their instructor as soon as possible.

However, the article also erroneously suggested that attendance policies are unusual in college. A search of other college websites for class syllabi will show that attendance is almost always required. Like Columbia, most schools don’t have universal policies because attendance plays a different role in each course, and thus a college-wide rule would be counter-productive.

But teachers don’t require attendance out of habit. Most of us design our courses so that students do intellectual work during class meetings. We hold conversations, orchestrate group work, give lectures, and focus on collaborative production. Students who miss these meetings are not participating nor performing at the same level as those who attend. Attendance policies reflect that difference, and thus vary by course just as teaching styles do.

Grades serve to explain how well students meet learning objectives. When in-class work is essential to the course, a clear attendance policy is not only appropriate, it’s essential. Like requirements that students do homework or projects, attendance policies explain how students can meet these objectives. And like all coursework, students retain the right (and responsibility) to participate or not.