Some students will take a hands-on approach in celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy today by volunteering during Penn State's third annual Day of Service — if they can find time between classes to participate, that is.

Penn State is the only school in the Big Ten to have classes on this national holiday, prompting the day of service's coordinators to promote it as "a day on, not a day off."

People who are interested in volunteering today are technically allowed to miss classes to do so — a University Faculty Senate policy passed last January added participation in the day of service to the list of university-approved excused absences.

However, students needed inform their professors by last Monday if they were planning on missing classes today and wanted the absence to be excused.

There are several problems with this policy.

First, the guidelines for absences were poorly publicized. Few students were aware that they could miss class today to engage in service projects, and even fewer realized that they needed to receive permission to do so by last Monday. The coordinators of the event should have done a better job of informing potential volunteers of these rules. It would have boosted participation rates.

However, the fault doesn't fall entirely upon the event's coordinators. The university should reconsider its policy.

The university has a right to make sure that people who miss classes are actually participating in activities, not just skipping class. It's reasonable that they require students to sign in and out of service projects to make their excuses valid.

But it's unnecessary to require students to inform their professors of their planned absence an entire week before the event.

Since the day of service falls so early in the semester, students weren't necessarily enrolled in their current classes by last Monday, making it impossible for them to get permission to miss class.

Next year, the policy should be loosened and given more publicity.

In the meantime, students should do their best to attend their classes today and still find time to engage in service, whether through coordinated activities or independently.