Dear Editors,

My name is Annika Chavez, and I am a 25 year-old college student living in Berkeley, California. I understand that the intent of required or graded attendance policies in college is to ensure student success. However, I would say that they actually have the opposite effect, and that they harm student growth due to preventing the student from developing independent discipline needed at a college level.

A 1999 paper by St. Clair concluded that “By making class attendance compulsory, students can lose their feeling of control, begin to feel bad about their decision to enroll in college, and may decide there are more important things to do than attend class.” If forcing attendance causes students to not develop their own prioritization, we fail to prepare students for transitioning to the working world.

I would also like to point out that these attendance policies can hurt the many students that are disabled, working, raising children, living in a complex home situation, or otherwise needing to miss class for unforeseen reasons. These students are capable of doing what they must in order to catch up on missed work, but their circumstances may not allow them to have perfect attendance. These policies will favor privileged students and disproportionately hurt the others. College is not high school, and it is imperative in higher education that we foster an environment for adult growth and equal opportunity. I urge professors and those in charge of schoolwide policies to reconsider requiring or grading attendance.

Sincerely,
Annika Chavez