The governance decision made by the syllabus that class
attendance is not mandatory was an interesting notion not only in this class
but in classes that have similar policies.
At the beginning of the semester it was easy to make it to every class
with the early motivation for school but as the semester went on that
motivation tended to dwindle. It did not
dwindle in the effort I put towards the class but justifying going to class
became more difficult. Being a first
semester junior, I had a lot of challenging courses this semester and when
there would be an exam in another class on a Tuesday or Thursday it would be
hard to justify spending an hour and a half in class opposed to an hour and a
half of studying. By no means does this
reflect my attitude towards the class nor prioritized it over others but I was
lucky enough to have a good amount of friends in the class too so if I missed a
class every once in a while my friends could fill me in on what happened during
that session. However, throughout this
semester this class has taught me that this behavior can be unacceptable in the
real world because a boss will not care about your excuses from outside
distractions. This class has taught me
how to organize, prioritize (based on opportunity cost), and resolve conflicts
in order to accomplish all your goals.
Most of my classes I have taken before in which class
mandatory attendance was required as a part of your grade, I would take a
different approach to these classes. At
the end of the day, you are at school to learn and grow as a person and the
main way to do that is going to class and interacting with your professors and
peers. However, this is a results driven
world and the results at a university comes via your final grades. No where on a résumé can you write your class
attendance but one of the main things focused on a résumé is your GPA and that
is why I believe students make more of an effort to go classes that have
attendance points. By no means do I
justify this notion but it is the harsh reality of a lot of college students and
I fall victim to it every now and again.
Going to class when it is not mandatory is valuable life
lesson to learn because it teaches you that things you do not want to do in the
short term can end up helping you in the long term. For example, if I were to not go to class but
still complete all the blogs and homework assignments, I could seemingly slide
through and get an acceptable grade.
However, I would not have truly learned all the values and intricacies of
the class in which I could discuss with a future employer during an
interview. I also believe that not
making class mandatory can actually help a student because if you are making
the voluntary decision to attend class than you are most likely going to pay
more attention in class since you are there on your own will.
On the flip side, voluntary attendance can have negative
effects because students can start to diminish the value of the class based on
their peers’ actions. If someone were to
go to class everyday but see the overall attendance is dwindling, it will
become difficult for that person to continue to justify going to class because
they could get in the mindset of, “if they do not have to go, why do I have to
go?”. However, I do believe this goes
back to my early point of having a mature perspective on your education and not
allow others to influence your decisions of doing the responsible thing
(attending class).
The second governance decision made about allowing students
to use electronic devices during class is one I think should be used throughout
the university. Most students like to
take notes on their laptops and different computer programs that are available
now that make it easier to keep your school work organized. I am one of those people that like to use
this method because I like having my school work for all my classes on just one
laptop instead of scattered out across different folders and notebooks. I do see the argument that these devices can
be distracting to the user and others in the class but once again, this relates
back to my point on maturity in your academics.
Everyone in the class is around 20 years old and just a short few years
away from joining the real world where maturity is expected in all professional
settings. Having a personal electronic
device in class should not be a problem for the age group we are at because each
individual should take their personal academics seriously and respect that others
are too; thus, an individual using a laptop should be able to be mature enough
to not distract themselves or others.
To conclude and tie all these things together, allowing for
voluntary attendance and for the use of personal electronic devices forces the student
to decide if the voluntary action is worth the end reward. In this case, and many other cases, the
action is worth the reward. I believe
you made these governing decisions because this is a 400 level class in which
the students should be at a mature enough level to make the right choices towards
their academics.
