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Northern AZ University To Institute Nannyism
Northern Arizona University will install an electronic system that detects when each student with an ID card walks through the door to some large classrooms. The system will produce an attendance report for the instructor.NAU President John Haeger said that, along with the card readers, he will "strongly encourage" faculty to require students to attend their freshman- and sophomore-level courses. Although the university isn't planning to implement a mandatory-attendance policy, the new technology and Haeger's prodding likely will prompt more faculty to use attendance or class participation as part of a student's final grade. The goal is to reduce the number of students who miss class, fall behind and drop out of school. A growing body of research suggests that attendance is a key factor in class success and that good grades can motivate students to remain in school. Students who make it through the first year of college are less likely to drop out later. For faculty to tell a student "it's up to you" to attend class isn't enough, especially when research supports the value of class attendance, Haeger said. "We all have to be committed to student success," he said. But the proposal is already generating debate among students, some of whom say the university is going too far by introducing a "Big Brother" system to record attendance. Like most universities, NAU allows faculty members to decide whether to take attendance or factor it in to their grading. In recent years, more faculty are making attendance part of their grades, influenced by research that links attendance and classroom success, some NAU professors said. One of NAU's larger courses, Psychology 101, started factoring class participation into 10 percent of the final grade in fall 2007. One of Haeger's goals is to increase NAU's retention rate. At NAU, seven out of 10 freshmen return the next year. That's slightly above the national average for four-year public universities, but Haeger would like to boost that to between eight and nine. The prospect of more professors factoring attendance into final grades worries some students. A new Facebook group, "NAU Against Proximity Cards," has sprung up and has more than 1,300 members. Rachel Brackett, 19, an NAU sophomore who started the Facebook group, said her chief objection is that the change will rob students of a valuable life lesson. "My biggest problem is we are here at college to learn to become adults," she said. "I don't think we're all there maturitywise, but choosing to go to class is a stepping stone in maturity." She also objects to the university handing out points just for being there, as it suggests that NAU is less rigorous than some other schools. The majority of Brackett's professors do not record attendance or use it as part of the grade. Even so, she said she rarely misses class. Students will just find a way around any attendance system, she said. University officials say that although a student could carry another person's ID card, IDs also are keys to residence halls and are used to pay for meals. "(It) might not be worth asking someone to take your card," Bousquet said. In one fell swoop, it penalizes smarter students who now have to sit through incessant leftist drivel in mandatory stupid classes, dumb students who might pass a class though never graduate--costing them more tuition debt, and good teachers who would far rather just teach those motivated enough to want to attend class. Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-04-27 |
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