To require attendance or not to require attendance. That is the question that every faculty member has to answer.
Some choose to have lenient policies that allow multiple absences. Others follow a strict policy of dropping letter grades or percentages for every absence or tardy.
In my opinion, attendance or participation policies are harmful and disadvantageous to students.
According to the research of Karen St. Clair, the attendance of college students is linked to motivation, not attendance policies (Human Sciences Press, Inc.).
Furthermore, her data shows that required attendance does not guarantee high achievement in courses. St. Clair concluded that low achievement in a course is usually due to a number of factors and is not dependent
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Some students have anxiety that paralyzes them in a triggering situations, which includes classrooms.
Basically, the students that are trying to fight off their mental health problems are actually being punished for taking time to focus on themselves or avoiding a triggering situation.
UNI says that they care about mental health issues, but many UNI faculty’s attendance policies do not reflect an understanding of mental disorders and the impact on students. Students with these types of problems need access to resources, not a deduction in “participation points.”
Mental health is not the only type of student health that gets hurt with attendance policies — so does physical health. When there is an attendance policy in a course, many students feel required to attend class no matter what.
If they have a sinus infection and double-ear infection, students will still be in class to avoid lost points.
This is how sickness is spread around our campus and sick students remain sick. They don’t have any time to
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Not only is this additional money out of pocket for a grade, but it is classist and out of reach for lower-income students or students without insurance.
That sick student can either go to class with their contagious disease (which most do) or they can stay home and lose points in their course.
Speaking from experience, I will still attend class when there is an attendance policy even when I’m sick or not well. For people with uteruses on this campus, a week out of every month is hard to go to class.
Periods affect the whole body. Cramps, exhaustion, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, bloating, headaches and muscle pain are just some of the symptoms experienced.
For me, I am basically comatose on the first day of my period. I go to class feeling exhausted with intense cramps. My cramps are so bad that I often pass out from the pain and become nauseous.
Do you think I gain anything from being in class that day? No, I am not paying attention at all because my body is exhausted from bleeding.
Yet, there I am in class because of attendance policies. I’m one of the lucky ones because my cramps last one to two days. Other students have a week or more of intense