By Jason Cohen

With the suggestion of one campus committee, the words “here” and “present” may never be heard in campus classroom’s again.

Recently the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Committee recommended that the University Senate call upon the administration to evaluate the possibility of installing card swipes on all classrooms.

To ensure students rights and to conform with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the committee wants the attendance records generated by card swipes to only be used to meet financial aid requirements and identify students experiencing academic and other difficulties. The committee recommended the records only be used for grading purposes at the discretion of the faculty member teaching the course.

“I’m not suggesting it should be mandatory. Attendance should not be part of grading,” said Gregory Maney, an associate professor of sociology and a member of the committee that consists of faculty, advisors, the dean of academic records and student representatives.

Maney said card swiping for attendance would help the University and teachers a great deal. Professors are supposed to complete Last Date of Attendance forms during the course of the semester. “Unfortunately most teachers don’t fill these out,” said Maney. Last year only 54 percent of the faculty did. LDA are needed because it allows the University to know when students have withdrawn from their classes, even if they have yet to inform the school.

Every semester, the Department of Education audits a school and if a student has stopped attending class with less than 60 percent of the semester to go, the school may have to return tuition money that it has received, including Federal Pell Grants, Perkins Loans, Family PLUS loans or other federal funds. The date of withdrawal affects how much money the University owes the government, and how much the student could end up owing the school.

“If there is electronic card swiping for classes, it makes it easier on faculty. Then there’s no reason to take attendance and easier to fill out the LDA forms,” Maney said.

More importantly he said, “The University is concerned about undergraduate retention rates.”

Junior Scott Miller said he feels that card swipes for class are not needed at all.

“Scanning into classes is really dumb. If I don’t want to go to class then I shouldn’t have to,” said Miller. “What is this? High school?”

However senior John Michael has no problem with swiping for attendance.

“I think it’s a great idea, but it may not always work out because students who forget their card or just walk through when the door’s open may be marked absent when they are actually there,” Michael said.

Maney said that he supports the proposal fully, but still wants to respect the opinions and rights of the student body.

“I’m not insisting it’s going to include attendance as part of grading, but most importantly it respect’s the right to privacy and we don’t want students to feel like they’re being monitored and treated as suspects,” Maney said.

This could be the attendance tracker of the future.