The University requires professors to take attendance in all introductory courses, but connecting faces to names still poses a challenge for many professors.
As a result, professors of some lecture classes may not notice an unfamiliar face in the back of the room, which causes problems for the enforcement of university policies.
“Even if a faculty member is taking attendance regularly, it may be hard to know whether a student has sent a friend in his or her absence in a very large lecture course,” said Karen Young, College of Humanities and Social Sciences assistant dean and director of undergraduate programs.
Students cannot attend courses for which they are not enrolled, according to University policy. However, professors claim they have seen unregistered students attend their lectures.
Kami Kosenko, a Department of Communication assistant professor, said she has seen friends of students and parents attend lectures. One person who was not supposed to be there even snuck in and assaulted students, according to Kosenko, which she said made her more concerned for students’ safety.
“I don’t have a problem with it, but I think it is a problem in a sense that we don’t know who these people are,” Kosenko said.
Legal and safety risks like these are part of the reason why the University does not allow the practice, Young said.
Chemistry lecturer Nathaniel Finney said he sees attendance in lecture courses as an “enormous waste of time,” and he was not aware of the policy.
“I will not restrict access to my classroom unless I need to for practical reasons,” Finney said.
Psychology professor Roger Azevedo said when he used to teach large courses, unregistered people asked to attend lectures because they were interested in the subject. He said he had no problem with this as long as they did not disrupt the class and there was space available.
“You would never want to limit access to knowledge,” Azevedo said.
It is tough to say whether the number of people attending courses for which they are not enrolled is a widespread problem, according to Young.
“Could you have someone pretending to be a student sit in on a large lecture class all semester long? I think it is very unlikely,” Young said. “In my classes I would have caught it because I am very watchful of that kind of thing.”
An attendance roster and assigned seats allowed her to know what name went with each person, Young said.
According to Registration and Records Associate Registrar Michelle Johnson, all teachers have access to a photo roster and can ask students to present their student identification card at any given time.
Young said she does not think students sit in on classes for which they are not enrolled intentionally.
“I think most of the time people are acting in good faith and it is a clerical issue,” Young said. “Nonetheless, it is important to fix these problems in a timely manner.”
Auditing a course is an option for students looking to sit in on courses while still being compliant with university regulations. By auditing, students can take a course for no credit, but they still have to pay full tuition for the course.
“It becomes even more important that we make sure that we are respecting the students that are here, who are paying for tuition and behaving in accordance with the rules and expectations set by the university,” Young said.
Auditing, though, underwent stricter enforcement spring 2011 due to space reasons, according to Johnson.
“The associate deans felt like seats in classes should be going towards students progressing towards their degree,” Johnson said.
As a result, the University asked professors to enforce the part of the policy that requires undergraduate students to inform professors if they are auditing a course, according to Johnson. Instructors could then decide whether they would or would not allow the audit.
“Instructors now have more control of the makeup of their class roster,” Johnson said.
The University allows graduate students to take courses without instructor permission and allows each graduate student to have one free audit.
