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University Scans Student ID Cards to Take Attendance at Lectures

by Lee Bains on August 30, 2010 at 10:25 AM

id cardHigh schoolers have long grown broad-smiled and wide-eyed when regaled with their older friends' college stories -- parties, sleeping late, football games, and, amazingly to think, no attendance requirements. While those youngsters need not fear that all-night ragers and tailgating will fade into obscurity anytime soon, it may be a different story with class attendance. At least one college, Northern Arizona University, has begun using electronic scanners to track students' attendance at lectures.

"We do have to say to a lot of students that it really is important that you do show up to class," NAU associate professor Brandon Cruickshank told NPR. "You are not going to do well if you're not here." Buttressed by the arguments of professors like Cruickshank, NAU has decided that, starting today (the first day of the academic year), students will be required to swipe their ID cards upon arrival at large lecture classes. Citing low graduation rates and large numbers of five-year students, the university may be secure in its decision, but many of its students are not.

"I don't see why we need to be told what to do anymore," junior Rachel Brackett told NPR. "I feel like it's a move toward... treating us as though we were juveniles." While we are pretty sure that, as college students, we would have reacted in a similar way, we are absolutely sure that, when we were college freshmen, we sometimes ignored the pleas of professors like Cruickshank, and inevitably paid the consequences. Take that for what it's worth, kiddies. It will be on the exam.

Tags: college, education, northern arizona university, NorthernArizonaUniversity, privacy, students, top, university

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