MS>     Absenteeism due to excessive partying is the biggest discipline 
MS> college profs face.  Disruptive behavior _does_ happen, if more rare
 
I'm curious, is this really the biggest discipline problem college 
professors face?  I mean look at it from this angle--college students 
do have a lot more "freedoms", if you will, than do high school seniors,
by virtue of being HS graduates we expect them to act somewhat more 
responsibly.  As such we should be holding them accountable for their 
actions, excessive absenteeism is a behavior that is rather easy to 
deal with as long as the professor establishes their expectations of 
the student early on--"I expect all students to participate in the 
conduct of this class as scheduled" along with the expectation, you 
must provide the consequences associated with the expectation (both 
positive and negative).  Positive:  attend and participate, and you 
will reap the many benefits associated with the class, you'll fare 
better on exams, you'll increase your chances of performing well in the 
class etc.  Negative:  Choose not to attend and be unable to 
participate in discussion, be ill prepared form exams/measured events, 
jeopardize your standing in the class, potentialy impact on your final 
grade etc.  The negative consequences of course must be consistent with 
your institution's academic and disciplinary guidelines.  After having 
said and done all this, you put the responsibility on their shoulders to
attend, if they don't, it's their choice and you administer the 
appropriate consequence.
 
I had one such student last term (SP 96) in my college 300 level Speech 
Communications class, he was doing well up to Mid Term and choose not 
to attend from that point on, he had my syllabus outlining the grading 
criteria and all the measurable events and he choose to stop attending 
& participating.  He ended up failing the course.  He wasn't what I'd 
call a "discipline problem" although his absenteeism disturbed me (he 
was a bright kid) **he** made the choice not to come to class--when he 
knew the consequences.  So he failed an elective, wasted some of his 
parents money they spent on his tuition and got to party a little more 
than the next guy.  The sad part of it all was that he missed out on 
the classroom interaction.  It wasn't a "problem" for me--his absence 
didn't "disrupt" my class or his classmates progress throughout the 
term, I guess you could argue that the other students were deprived of 
the benefit of his participation in the group if you wanted to 
demonstrate the effect his absence had on the overall class. [shrug].
 
Well, I just wanted to toss in my thoughts on the issue.  I think if 
young people are taught to be accountable for their actions--knowing 
what is expected of them and what the consequences are, both good and 
bad, you'd experience a lot less "problems" with their behavior.  
Granted the student's developmental level plays a significant role in 
that, but I've seen this work with pre-schoolers all the way up to the 
students I teach at the junior level in college.
 
Regards,
 
Dale
--- TriDog 10.0
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