There are plenty of fun things to do in Long Beach, and for many students, going to class is at the bottom of the list.
“They really don’t want to go to class because we live right by the beach,” said Laura Kintz, a senior kinesiology major.
Whether or not the beach is to blame, some professors try to keep students in class, while others do not look past the third row.
“It’s tough. It takes a lot of interaction, like little activities to break up the monotony and promote attendance,” said Thomas Gufrey, a chemistry professor at Cal State Long Beach.
“Students are expected to attend classes regularly. Classroom participation is often one of the necessary and important means of learning and in many classes is essential to the educational objectives of the course,” according to the university’s attendance policy.
However, the specific policy is up to the professors. The only guidelines offered are what must be allowed as excused absences.
Gufrey keeps track of which students come to class by having proctors pass out slips of paper to each student at the beginning of class.
At the end of class he gives an easy quiz to make sure they were paying attention and uses quizzes as an attendance sheet. The points add up. Students can earn up to 100 out of 600 points from the quizzes.
But if students do not show up for class, he isn’t doing any back-tracking.
“The train keeps moving out of the station,” Gufrey said.””If I did that, it would open the gates for all kinds of excuses.”
Gufrey tries to mix compassion and standards to be fair to everyone, so he allows his students to miss six out of 30 lectures before he starts taking away points. Other professors, however, don’t take attendance at all.
“I grade students solely on their performance, and if they are able to perform adequately, that is all that matters,” said Gordon Abra, a”sociology professor at CSULB, via e-mail.
“Students are adults, and if they decide to miss a lecture, they are still responsible for the material. I leave it up to the students to decide what circumstances require them to miss a lecture,” Abra said. “The policies of other instructors differ, and I would not criticize other instructors for their policies.”
Marcus Young Owl, a biology professor at CSULB, has a similar policy.
“I used to be hard-nosed when it came to coming on time, but then I realized there is a whole series of reasons why they’re not there,” Young Owl said. “They’re not just at the beach. They’re looking for parking or there are problems on the freeway.”
Young Owl doesn’t take it personally if students don’t come to class, nor does he repeat lectures.
“If they can pass the exam without coming to class, that’s fine with me,” Young Owl said.
Gufrey has a different approach, though. He teaches Chemistry 100, and in his words, students “hate it, but they have to take it.”
“My job is to uncover their hidden love for chemistry,” Gufrey said. “I reward people for making an effort and just showing up.”
Whether professors take attendance or not, they aren’t letting the number of students who cut class affect their lectures. They aren’t slowing down or repeating.
Maturity level makes a difference in how often students attend class, according to Edgar Gomez, a junior civil engineer major.
“Some students may come directly from high school and haven’t made the transition yet,” Gomez said.””Once you’ve declared your major, it could be a turning point. The subjects you are involved in you’re going to find more interesting,” Gomez said.