+
The financial, educational costs of skiing class
► EMILY WELLBORN @em_wellborn
As the semester picks up speed, many students will inevitably encounter the age-old question: "To skip or not to skip?" Obviously, instructors have a preference, but the Kansan spoke with some of them about how they enforce their absence policies.
Every course is different and students have other responsibilities outside of class that they have to factor into their schedules, but attendance can be important to prepare for the future, instructors say.
"My class does not require attendance; we do have some form of quiz or activity almost every day that is designed to support student learning," said Professor of Business Tim Shaftel. "Overall, we find that attendance is highly correlated with successful completion of the course."
Junior Deja Jones, from Converse, Texas, feels that if she understands the course's material, her attendance shouldn't be mandatory.
"If you understand the material, since you are already paying for it, then you shouldn't be penalized if you don't go to class," Jones said.
She said that she doesn't skip often — about three times a semester — but when she does, she says it is in her larger lecture classes where attendance isn't usually taken anyway.
In a recent Twitter survey of 20 people, when asked if it was worse to be late to a class or miss class, 13 people
said that it would be worse to miss. Barbara Barnett, an associate professor of journalism, felt similarly.
"Being late is not going to have as dramatic of an effect on your grade as being out," Barnett said. "Some days your mind might not be there, some days you may be too tired to come, but a lot of times if you just show up, through osmosis, you're going to kind of get the flavor of the class and the feel of the class."
She said that she is trying to prepare her students for real work experience.
"I understand that things can happen," Barnett said. "I get that, but you also need to be thinking about planning because as harsh as I may seem, your employers are going to be a lot harser."
understands that students have many different responsibilities outside of class, but wants her students to stay in contact about their situations.
Barnett also said that she
"If it's somebody who habitually does this, I start to worry that they don't care," said Barnett "It just makes you feel like this is a person who isn't taking this too seriously. Especially if they don't tell you what's going on, because a lot of times you can work things out."
Brent Metz, an assistant professor of anthropology had a similar response when asked about student absences.
"I know how students' lives are complicated and busy," said Metz. "Nowadays students work a lot more than when I went to school - all though I
worked myself when I went to college, but it's a lot more nowadays."
Overall, we find that attendance is highly correlated with successful completion of the course."
Tim Shaftef Professor of business
Metz said he usually gives his students a few days that they can miss class in the semester.
"Students know how to manage — or at least they should know how to manage, that's part of the thing about college is figuring out how to manage all these complicated things in their lives and prioritize," Metz
said. "If they don't prioritize my classes, well, that's their decision. I don't take it personal."
He also said that it can also be should also prioritize how they want their money to be spent. Depending on what department a class a student is skipping is in, the student's state residency and their tuition, students can waste $2.19 to $18.35 every time they skip.
When asked about having stricter attendances policies in his classes, Metz said that he didn't think that would work because students have other obligations in their lives.
"I figure it's their responsibility," said Metz.
Edited by Frank Weirich
TRACK FROM PAGE 1
for the new administration to succeed."
The resource that the four men created in their app is exactly what America needs, according to Jonathan Peters, a journalism professor specializing in first amendment law.
"We ought to be able to have a mechanism by which we can learn about our government," Peters said.
A still from the Trump Track application.
Contributed photo
Transparency is important in every government, Peters said, regardless of who the president is.
"I think that if the White House, whether it's a White House led by Trump or Obama or W. Bush or Clinton, if it wants to be responsive to public concern about transparency in government, it ought to recognize that there is tremendous public support for transparency and respond accordingly." Peters said.
Federman, who is working toward his P.h.D in public administration, joined the project because of his experience not only in public administration and digital dashboards like the one the app uses but, according to him, his unusual outlook
on communication.
"I've written about digital dashboards and how governments use them to communicate with citizens," said Federman. "I've decided to flip that on its head and use it (the app) as a citizen communicating what the government is saying."
The "Trump tracker" is separated into eight sections: immigration, trade, energy and climate, federal government, economic policies, education, healthcare, and safety. Each section has a bulleted list of promises from Trump's contract with bullets that change color depending on what, if any, progress has been made on
that promise.
The default gray bullet signifies that no action has been made. A yellow bullet shows that steps have been taken, a green bullet means that a policy has been implemented and a (not yet used) red bullet means a policy was proposed but failed to be enforced.
For example, the president's promise of withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, located under the trade section, has a green bullet to show that a policy has been implemented. The app then provides a link directly to the memorandum President Trump signed withdrawing the United States from the TPP.
The digital dashboard has created quite a buzz, accumulating a total of 22,400 followers on Twitter.
With Friday marking day 14 of the first 100 days of Trump's presidency, Federman said he looks forward to what the app will continue to do and where its creators will go afterward.
"We certainly are really passionate about this and I don't imagine that it will be the end of our participation in democracy in this way," said Federman. "It's too early to know."
- Edited by Casey Brown