Subject: New Attendance Policy
From: "William J. Rapaport" <rapaport@buffalo.edu>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 08:33:19 -0400 (EDT)

A student writes:
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Knowingly or unknowingly,i might have also been a part of this
disruption.Although I did not disturb the class in anyway possible to
the best of my knowledge,i would still apologize.

Reply:
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Apology (if needed :-) accepted. But everyone should please note that
you really cannot be aware of how you might be disturbing others.
What many of you think of as whispering is merely talking quietly,
which is actually too loud. And when a large number of students whisper,
the noise is even louder. Similarly, a student who leaves in the middle
of class (even for a legitimate reason such as an emergency) disturbs
the instructor, who watches the student leave.
The moral is: Be considerate!

The student continues:
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And, This is for the first time I am hearing anything as such.
We usually hear students being expelled from the classes because of
their misconduct.

Reply:
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You can't be expelled from a course (i.e., forced to take an F) for poor
behavior, although on *very* rare occasions (maybe twice in my 35-year
college-teaching career) I have asked a student to leave who was
disturbing the class to leave the room.

The student continues:
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The intensity,purpose and aim of classes being relaxed because of the
misconduct of the students?such a disgrace.It is a collective failure.
The school should have foreseen all the possible mishaps while designing
this course.

Reply:
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That's hard to do; the fact that we're all having this discussion is
evidence that this kind of behavior was unpredictable.
On the other hand, some things just can't be helped.
It's either impossible or not worth the effort to design a foolproof
attendance system.

The student continues:
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The students should have had a little more courtesy.And the speakers
should have made it more interesting.I have a proposal.
I would rather suggest that each student should attend the classes of
his/her choice.Because we all know what the future classes are gonna be,
let us give the opportunity to the students to attend which ever classes
they like.And just make sure they attend 3 such classes(at least) before
the completion of the semester.This way,we have students attend the
class,and the class is in harmony and the students happy because they
listen to what ever they wanted.Thus,there would be some(if not a huge)
development.I think it is at least better than the present situation.
please think over the possibility of this policy.

Reply:
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That is indeed an interesting idea, which I will share with future
instructors of 501. Thanks.