Sage Warner
Guest Writer
As Pacific Lutheran University returns to in-person learning they also return to a policy that should have stayed in the past—graded attendance.
There are many reasons why grading policies based on attendance are absurd. It discourages students from missing class even when they are sick for fear of penalization, which is a problem both in and out of a pandemic. If there is no way to miss class and make up for it, no one will want to miss class even at the risk of themself and others.
However, the greatest problem with graded attendance policy is that it is blatantly inequitable.
The assumption that all students are fully capable of attending class all of the time repeats a pattern of ableism that PLU often follows. It ignores all outside factors such as the day-to-day experiences of individuals with any mental illnesses or disabilities or countless other medical conditions.
Students with chronic pain can find it impossible and painful to get out of bed, much less attend any class. Students with mental illness can experience executive dysfunction, hindering the ability to do anything, especially tasks they want or need to do.
There are also doctor’s appointments, anxiety from still being in a pandemic and fatigue, none of which are limited to mentally ill or disabled individuals.
The defense that students can receive needed academic accommodations through the school using the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations (OAA) becomes flawed when considering the guidelines for receiving accommodations are inaccessible themselves.
While the people who work there genuinely do everything they can to support students, the guidelines from the school to receive accommodations are very restrictive. The school requires students to have a written diagnosis from a qualified practitioner outlining what they have and why accommodations would be beneficial.
These guidelines align with the federal guidelines and are not abnormal in a university setting but still create barriers to students. These requirements are nearly impossible for students who do not have health insurance or do not regularly see a therapist.
Considering the obstacles to academic accommodations, universal design learning is a solution that blasts away the validity of graded attendance policies. Universal design learning is the idea that everything should always be accessible for everyone, regardless of the situation.
Essentially, it creates an environment that is usable for everyone, independent of whether they are disabled or mentally ill or have legal accommodations. It requires no case-by-case basis to restrict accessibility. Dr. Brenda Llewellyn Ihssen, who is a part of the OAA, provides support for faculty interested in implementing universal design learning, which would help make academics accessible to every student.
Unfortunately, as it stands right now PLU is not aiming for universal design, which is made clear in the reimplementation of graded attendance policies. As long as students are forced to attend class, there is no way that the classroom can be considered unequivocally accessible.
