Student absenteeism on university campus¢

U.N.B. professor Gilbert Allardyce examines the nega-

eeism in by Gilbert Allardyce [VE consequences of student absent Canadian universities.

The Brunswickan

In all the talk about problems in

Our universities, one important sub- ject is not mentioned: missing students.

Student absenteeism is the black hole of higher education. The rea- son is simple enough: most pro- fessors do not take attendance. Therefore nothing is known for certain about the overall rates and patterns of absenteeisin, or whether the numbers are rising or falling. My guess, after many years on campus, is that these numbers are higher than faculties want to ac- knowledge or parents would like to know. Conventional wisdom holds that absentee rates are low- est in small classes and profes- sional schools, where an esprit de corps often develops early on. Highest rates are said to be among freshmen and sophomore, begin- ners adrift in the transition from high school to university.

These are two different places. Coercive attendance policies de- veloped along with the public school system in the nineteenth century. More recently, the trou- bling problem of high school drop outs, and the recognition that ab- sentecism in many cases is an early waming sign of drop outs to come, havemaintained the conviction that compulsory attendance and public education go together. In contrast, old attendance rules at most uni- versities long since have become a dead letter, and, particularly since the 1960s, professors generally have come to accept individual

responsibility as the defining fea- tures of college student life.

From long acquaintance with academics, I know that most of them in their hearts and egos want students to come to class. But they do not like to say so. They want students to come on their Own, out

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of intellectual interest, and not in dumb obedience to rules and roll calls. However, students can get the wrong signals. “Professors”, I have heard them say, “don’t care whether you come to class or not”.

‘Involved here is an

incomprehension between faculty and students, two solitudes as far apart as any others in the country. The causes of student absentee- ism appear as ditterent as students themselves. Some carefree types just seem to drop out of the picture now and then, hanging out at the mall, watching soaps, or getting into rock music. Others go to work. For various reasons, students in growing numbers are holding part- time jobs during the school year. When the job calls, classes can

wait. This is because most profs

will put up with absenteeism; most employers will not.

Just as “absence behavior” on the part of workers in industry sometimes is interpreted by indus- trial psychologists as a protest against alienating conditions in the work place, so students may go missing to protest what professors do to them in the classroom. Largely without a fight, students lost the voice in university affairs that they gained in the struggles of the 1960s, and, aside from limited opportunities to state their griev- ances in standard student opinion Dolls, they have few ways to ex- press their resistance to teaching practices other than to take a walk. Today, as enrollments rise and fac- ulty numbers remain fixed, the crowds grow larger in the lecture halls, the distance between teach- ers and students increases, and so does the probability of more alien- ation and absenteeism.

Faculties recognize that the qual- ity of education usually suffers

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when teachers face higher num- bers of students. But what happens — when students stay away? Unlike — employers, who know that worker — absenteeism costsmoney, profs are _ uncertain about the costs of absen- _ teeism to education. Obviously — there is some collateral damage to — the integrity of learning: absen- tees, for example, usually catch up with courses in the last weeks by © i borrowing lecture notes and cram- : ming for exams. Otherwise, how- _ ‘a ever, the results may not appear all” bad. The more some students go. missing, the more others benefit from smaller classes. Indeed, the | largest classes on some campuses — may even count on the absentee rate to keep the crowd down. In | any case, with more students on their hands, most educators are not _ inclined to worry too much about the missing. .

Clearly, therefore, no one is g0- | ing to propose paying students $150 a day to show up for class. Indeed — some free spirits on campus be- lieve that there is something to be said for absenteeism. Deciding to go absent, they say, is - and should © be - a free choice, a decision left to young people learning to manage” their own lives. Anyway, students” pay tuition, don’t they? Certainly no professor is going to be using: the ruler on them. Compulsion is not academic style.

Sull, one way to think about what is wrong in our classroomsis to think about those students who are not there. In trying to reach | them, we may find better ways i reach all those who show up every: day. The challenge to teaching i clear, To get absentees to come tt class, professors will need to maki them believe in their hearts thi

there.