LENZ: UNL professors need to ax attendance policies, make classes worthwhile

We've all been there: stuck inside a classroom, listening to a professor drone on about a subject we care nothing about. You might take out your laptop and peruse Tumblr or Facebook. You might also try to pay attention, but as it wavers you just nod along to what the teacher is saying while the subject matter goes in one ear and out the other.

 

The other option is to skip class. Originally, that seems like a glorious idea — until you remember the first day of class when the professor said you're only allowed to skip three days, and after that, your grade starts to drop significantly. 

 

As an out-of-state student taking a grand total of 32 credit hours this year, I'm paying approximately $19,768 to go to school this year alone. This isn't like my lowly job at Cracker Barrel, where I get paid $7.85 an hour, and I only make that if I actually show up. I'm paying nearly $20,000 in tuition, and if I decide I don't want to roll out of bed in the morning — because of the weather, because I don't feel well or simply because I don't feel like it — and spend a long time finding parking and walking to class, that should be my prerogative, and I should be able to do so without any punishment. If skipping class on a consistent basis causes me to fail my classes, again, that should be my own choice. Ultimately, I feel as though I should be the one holding all the cards.

 

I took a general education class last semester that, quite frankly, bored me to tears. Once I had missed my designated three days of class, I strolled in every day, computer and a coffee in hand — the only items that allowed me to keep my eyes open. For the first couple classes, I — and many of my peers — took the time to take notes on the things we discussed in class. However, we quickly caught on. The professor only talked about things on the PowerPoint, and after class he posted the PowerPoints on Blackboard.

 

After we figured that out, no one took notes. 

 

We didn't have a single homework assignment due in the class. We only had six papers, and in all of those papers, we were allowed to use the PowerPoints as sources. So each day, I showed up physically, but not mentally, ultimately wasting both my own time and the professor's. And I still received an A in the class.

 

Let's face it: We're college students and, for better or for worse, we react far better to positive reinforcement than negative. It's like when we were children. Our parents told us we needed to do something, and if we didn't do it, we'd be punished. Did that ever work? Did that ever put the fear of God in us? For me, it rarely did. However, when my mom told me I'd get ice cream or a cookie if I did something, I usually couldn't get that chore done fast enough. Although we are older now and hopefully wiser, that mindset hasn't changed.

 

Likewise, this semester I am taking a class in which the professor takes attendance every day. However, this particular professor doesn't make a certain number of absences count against my final grade. Instead, he makes it so if you attend class every single day, you get a reward: a 1 percent increase of your final grade. And trust me when I say 1 percent is worth a lot in this class. Needless to say, I haven't missed a single class yet, and I don't plan on it. 

 

I understand as college students we should be grown up enough not to need incentives and that's fine. I'm not saying that this particular professor's policy should be a university-wide one. All I'm saying is, don't punish me when I'm paying for my seat in the class.

 

I think many times professors are scared if they have no attendance policy, students won't ever show up to class. There is, however, a simple way to solve this problem: Make the class worth our time. I've had fantastic teachers in the past make seemingly boring subjects into interesting ones just as often as I've taken classes that should have been fascinating and fell far short of that. 

In a similar vein, this time of year, classrooms are full of coughing, hacking, sniffling students. Many of those students, who no doubt didn't want to leave their beds that morning, are in class because of the attendance policies. And trust me when I say I want them there just as much as they want to be there — which is not at all.

 

Get rid of the attendance policy, UNL. It will decrease the spread of illness and increase the amount of productivity because the students who are there are the ones who truly want to be there. If you're worried about students not showing up, it's time to up your game. Let us worry about ourselves.

 

Danae Lenz is a junior news-editorial major. You can reach her on Twitter at @danaelenz or at danaelenz@dailynebraskan.com.