Editor's Note: The Asbury Critic is a featured opinion column written and submitted by Prindle Institute for Ethics interns. The opinions expressed in this and other pieces are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The DePauw or Prindle.
On the first day of classes, the professor lays out their expectations for you for the rest of the semester—including the attendance policy. Some professors are as flexible as the university will allow them to be, making room for up to four unexcused absences throughout the semester, while others deduct grades for each unexcused absence (I am currently in a class that deducts the final grade by 1% for each one—rough). You go into the semester hoping to be a model student, paying attention during every class (which you will surely never miss), but, sometimes, that’s just not how it works.
Once you get a little behind on your schoolwork, it can be tempting to skip a class here and there, just to get back up to speed with things. Whether you attend or not, you act knowing the consequences that you may face. As a student in a college, your duty to yourself is to maximize your learning. While attendance can be a good indicator of a student’s level of interest and effort, if you would genuinely be able to get more done by skipping a class and catching up on what you missed afterward, then why shouldn’t you? After all, this is a private institution, and you pay for it. You may even argue that you reserve some right to do with the classes you pay for as you please!
Certainly, some duty to yourself is being fulfilled with this approach: a student’s role is that of the learner. While class attendance can be crucial to fulfilling that role, sometimes (granted you use your time wisely), it can be more beneficial and efficient for learning to deviate from the schedule assigned to you. You could argue that how you learn is not really specified as a part of your role, and as long as you are meeting the learning goals set for you (that is to say you are still doing your assignments and scoring well on your quizzes), then whether you went to class or went through the textbook in your room should not matter.
However, you must remember that a student is only an individual in the greater community that is the university. In theory, you could teach yourself much of the material in many disciplines (I say ‘much’ and ‘many’ because perhaps this does not apply to all disciplines—please don’t trust a ‘self-taught surgeon’ if you value the current arrangement of your organs). However, with diligent self-study and a mentor or two, you have decided instead to join the academic environment of a university, the function of which is more than to just pump out a degree upon meeting some requirements.
The question, then, is what is the “function” of the university? The specifics may be hard to define, but we can certainly agree that a part of it should be to cultivate an educational environment for students to achieve this vague end goal of “learning” (the goal is vague as, after all, it is difficult to say when someone is done learning or has learned enough). The upkeep of this environment naturally demands much of the university–qualified faculty, diverse course options and reasonable class structure, to name a few, but it also demands some things of the students.
One of the more reasonable expectations is participating in this environment. The spirit of the environment hinges on the exchange of ideas, disagreement and discourse, collaboration and mutual learning. By deciding not to go the self-taught surgeon route, you’ve agreed to be a part of this environment, and thus must also contribute to it. This means engaging with your peers and instructors to not only reach your own learning goals for the material but also to maintain the “spirit” of learning—that is to say, embodying the qualities of a good “learner” and thus a good “student”. These qualities may be curiosity, diligence, focus, creativity and so on, but certainly include being present in the classroom. Not participating in this environment—because you should get to control how you use the classes you pay for—would be like equating college to a service that cranks out a diploma for you in 4 years. It would be doing a disservice to the function of the university.
Additionally, keep in mind that sometimes you just have to do things not because you want to, but because you have to. That is just a fact of life, and while it applies to being a good student and achieving academic success, it also applies to being a good citizen and a productive member of society. Just as in society, there is a certain civic duty in higher education to adhere to the rules set in place for the sake of our community’s functioning. Even when we do not want to, we must participate in the educational process.
As the Spring semester rolls around, you may come to realize after the first few weeks that you are less prepared for that exam than you thought, or that some essay idea you had may not prove to be substantive, or whatever else that may have you believe that your best course of action is to lock in at home. Just remember that you came to this university to take advantage of a certain environment that promotes the spirit of learning outside of just getting your assignments done for class. As such, you may as well participate in this environment and make the most of your tuition.