Survey says: class attendence loses to sleep

A study conducted by the Student Affairs Assessment Office says that class attendence becoming less of a priority for students.

Going to classes at 8 a.m. on Friday . . . that's unheard of.

A Penn State Pulse survey on class attendance at the University, conducted by the Student Affairs Assessment Office, showed more students tend to cut daily classes scheduled before 9:30 a.m., and those classes on Fridays.

But, the big picture shows 50 percent of the 511 participants said they attended all sessions of every class, and only 5 percent said they cut half of their classes.

"The (University Council on Continuous Quality Improvement) wanted student feedback to 'confirm' the feeling expressed recently by many faculty that students seem to be cutting classes more often," Moore said. "And that attendance at their classes show a significant decrease."

The 511 participants is an accurate representation of the thousands of undergraduate students at University Park, Moore said.

"Statistically, our participation rate is very healthy," she said. "We match certain background characteristics such as age, gender, college of enrollment . . . semester standing. This is one way we determine that our sample is 'representative'."

Of this "representative" sample, 24.3 percent said they cut classes because of fatigue or oversleeping. Almost as many said lack of time and other demands kept them from going to classes.

Susan Welch, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, who was a chair on the University Council on Continuous Quality Improvement said the survey was prompted by discussions among faculty about the academic environment at the University.

"We were making generalizations without any data," she said. "(The survey) gave actual hard data."

This data showed that there was some truth in the sentiment that students were taking academics lightly, she said. But, it did not show dramatic evidence of this. However, the results of the survey have prompted an initiative to get the message that academics is the most important part of students' college careers, Welch said.

One way of doing this is through the Freshman Testing, Counseling and Advising Program and orientation week before students become integrated into the University.

"We're taking a step backward to see what message we are sending," Welch said. "To see if we can't send a more effective message."