Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Tiffany Tran [Click to enlarge]

As students, we all pay for a service: the opportunity to receive an education at Texas A&M University. As paying customers, we should be given the right to use this service as we wish. A consumer should be able to use a service a lot, a little or maybe not at all. Students are paying customers who deserve to use their own judgement in attending class, with no one telling them how to enjoy the service.

If a student can never go to class and still manage a grade that meets his or her expectations, an attendance policy should not stand in their way. Precious time was saved, and academic excellence was still achieved. Some classes are inherently boring, and a few professors are too caught up in the frills of academia to realize that their lecture is as boring as watching mold grow. While some classes are comparable to torture, others can be intellectually stimulating and fun. Either way, a student should have the basic right to attend at his or her own leisure.

The typical college student is busy even without classes, which is why students complain that school gets in the way of college. Maintaining an active lifestyle as a normal college student can be demanding. Priorities come and go, and while the real education that leads to the final degree is always a focal point, the truth is that other neat things often happen. Random road trips, epic parties that make you feel funny and sleep in the next day and other functions like open forums and interesting guest speakers sometimes conflict with class schedules. Not to mention many students who hold down a job to pay for their education. College students live flexible lifestyles that are open to spontaneity, and it only makes sense that class schedules should be flexible as well.

Test day will forever be the great equalizer. Students who regularly skip class are naturally punished for their lack of effort when they receive a poor grade. But some professors escalate the injury by docking points for missing class as well. This is ridiculous, students pay this school thousands of dollars for seats in classes that a particular college has determined to be mandatory for a degree plan. If a student has to enroll in a class to graduate, and that class happens to suck, does the student get money back upon completion? A&M has yet to come up with a money-back guarantee plan.

Continued...

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