With winter term kicking off, we’ve all gotten used to syllabus day where professors go over their policies, their course overview and then jump straight into content. With attendance rules set by each professor individually, it can feel like attendance expectations become confusing and high-stakes.

During my freshman year, I took a class where missing more than one discussion section would result in failing the course. On the flip side, I’ve had professors who don’t care if you show up to class as long as you get your work done.

While professors can use their own discretion to decide how many absences are reasonable before a student’s grades are impacted, UO adopted a reason-neutral absence policy back in 2022 that prohibits instructors from asking why students missed a class.

The office of the provost noted that the implementation of this policy “is intended to provide more transparency and equity in application of course attendance.”

As good as this sounds in theory, the reason-neutral policy can overlook unexpected life events. Students shouldn’t have to weigh staying home due to illness, family emergencies or experiencing mental health challenges against showing up just to keep their attendance grade.

UO junior Grace Mangali said the daily attendance tracker she has in one of her classes makes it feel like “the incentive to go to class is to get the attendance points and not to learn something.”

“I think class is most valuable when you’re showing up and getting something that you can’t get outside of it,” Mangali said.

At this point, are these policies meant to encourage learning or punish absence? If students are only showing up due to the fear of missing points, they are not going to truly get what they need out of their class.

UO junior Jay Bramhall said he noticed that while many professors set high attendance expectations, they often don’t enforce their own rules. He also said he thinks the policy is in place mostly to “uphold staff ego.”

“People don’t like teaching to an empty classroom, but it’s on the faculty to make it so that I want to go to their class,” Bramhall said.

When students are paying up to tens of thousands of dollars to attend their classes each term, they should have some input in deciding how they learn best.

A study published by the National Library of Medicine looked at how attendance hurdles impact students’ perception of attendance policies. It found that the majority of students would still attend most classes even without mandatory attendance requirements. Many also said that mandating attendance can unfairly disadvantage certain students.

Last year, UO senior Henry Perrine suffered from a concussion before finals week. He already had two absences from the class, so he tried to get accommodations for the injury. With too little time left in the term, his professor landed on excusing just one assignment, forcing him to show up to class.

“Even writing out an email was hard for me. I kind of just gave up; it was pretty frustrating,” Perrine said. “I think the whole thing is a little twisted.”

Students are often not asking to just skip class, but they’re asking for flexibility and a bit of understanding.

At the end of the day, strict attendance policies lead to unnecessary stress for students. UO’s policy should encourage learning and not penalize students for life’s unpredictability.