Oddly enough, I sometimes reminisce over the crispy fall mornings of high school when I would wake up with a sore throat and miss class for a day or two. My absences were pardoned by a note written by my parents or a doctor. As a college student, however, it is not always that simple.
Attendance policies at the University of Mississippi are largely at the mercy of each professor. The university’s current attendance guideline states that “it is the responsibility of the instructor to determine the attendance guidelines that best promote learning in a particular course.”
Many classes strictly require attendance at all class meetings. Attendance is taken by signing one’s name, scanning in with a student ID, completing a graded daily assignment or being recorded by the professor. Professors often adopt a policy allowing two to three allowed unexcused absences, after which they will deduct points from a student’s class grade for each absence.
So, come rain or shine — or, more likely, fever or good health — a student must decide whether missing class for a cold is worth risking a letter grade.
Jessica Hunter, a sophomore nursing major from Atlanta, spent nearly a month being in and out of class this semester due to recurrent hospitalizations. Hunter said only two of her classes required attendance.
“I was very lucky to have professors that accepted my doctor’s note and have met with me during office hours to catch me up to speed,” Hunter said.
Despite her situation that forced her to miss quite a bit of class, Hunter understands the importance of attending class and why many professors require it.
“Like big lectures, for biology or chemistry, it makes sense for attendance to be required,” Hunter said. “If you miss class, you’re missing valuable information.”
Junior Kathleen Havens, an education major from Houston, Texas, had a similar situation that required her to miss class this past spring semester. Havens was hospitalized for about a week and had several courses with required attendance. Absences negatively impacted Havens’s grades in those classes due to missed participation points, but these penalties were eventually absolved.
“My grades were bad when I got back, but I was able to make up for my work because of my excuse,” Havens said.
Havens thinks attendance should not be mandatory.
“I don’t think absences should affect overall grades, because your education is what you make of it. We all have things going on. Limited absences just add on to the stress,” Havens said. “We are all adults. It is your responsibility and your choice to go or not.”
It is not just a student’s sickness that can act as a barrier to class attendance. Illness, injury and death of friends and family members are also legitimate reasons students need to miss class. Right now, there is no policy preventing students from receiving academic penalties for days they miss as a result of these issues.
Grief has no timeline, and it looks different for every person. My friends and I have all, unfortunately, lost someone dear to us, and we have all handled it differently. Some of us saw our grades suffer, while others were forced to cope while still attending classes.
Mississippi State has a clause in its attendance policy that allows for absences due to death, illness or injury of a student’s immediate family member. Mississippi State also excuses missed class days for professional and graduate school interviews and participation in legal proceedings.
Since our university does not have a mandate like this, professors are technically able to decide on their own whether a court proceeding, job interview or visit to a family member in the hospital are valid excuses to miss class.
While it is reasonable, to an extent, to mandate attendance, especially in an age of technology when many students are abusing artificial intelligence to get through school, mandated attendance has its faults.
Plenty of students have friends scan or sign their name for them, while others do so themselves, then leave before the professor sees. Some students attend class in-person but shop online, scroll on social media or refuse to pay attention to the lecture. Should attendance count if students are physically, but not mentally, present?
It should be our liberty to choose whether or not to attend class without a penalty merely for an absence. Students who elect to miss class and perform poorly academically as a result should learn a valuable life lesson from facing the consequences of poor test results.
While required attendance exists to hold students accountable, it can be an unrealistic expectation for most. At the very least, there should at least be policies in place by the university to provide academic protections for students facing death in the family or personal illness, instead of simply being left up to the professor.
Nataly Tello is a sophomore English and journalism major from Hernando, Miss.
