By Travis Owen
5/11/2010
As President of the NAU Conservatives, I felt compelled to talk about the issue that has been pressing for us and is now hitting national headlines.
Northern Arizona University has once again wasted student dollars, invaded our privacy and trampled on our rights. I am sure most NAU students know by now that the University is implementing an electronic attendance monitoring system.
A card reader will read the students ID each time he or she enters the classroom. Similar to resident halls the cards won’t even have to be removed but will be read when within the vicinity of monitors. The University reported the card readers are estimated to cost a total of $75,000 and paid for by federal stimulus funds will be phased in.
The data will be recorded from each class and read by faculty and staff in regular reports. However the readers would only be in classes of 50 or more students.
The University said they want to encourage students to attend class more frequently, lower the drop-out rate, and increase the amount of student success. But is this really the answer?
Since news of this has broken it has been posted on azcentral.com, guardian.co.uk, nuintel.com, and huffingtonpost.com.
This is rightly so due to the fact that this violates our constitutional right to privacy. This policy is being implemented by a university that for the longest time had a designated “free speech zone.” This is the same University that is cutting salaries on professors, building a new rec-center but raising tuition.
As I pointed out in an earlier blog, “Northern Arizona University in Deep Blue Territory,” this campus holds a complete disregard to ideological differences and now privacy.
It is an extremely uncomfortable feeling, the University having data on where I am, and how often I am there. Due to the fact that nearly all students are adults and voters they are guaranteed certain rights to privacy. This privacy includes doing what one wishes within the law without being held accountable. This monitoring is Orwellian and borderline totalitarian practices being put in place by the University.
The complete disregard for constitutional rights of students is taking any and all liberty out of collegiate educational practices. It is rules and mandates like this that lead to worse things.
Sooner or later if college students across the country don’t pay attention to this it could start becoming a common practice.
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Who really cares if a student misses a survey class? How many important, upper-level classes will be monitored? Zero. When undergrads elect to miss a class because they have arranged note-takers for it, why is it an issue? There are few reasonable reasons to monitor student's habits other than to cover the ass of poor instructors who can argue that when students don't show up, they cannot learn. Very little learning actually takes place in the classroom - reading for hours, doing homework, having discussions, writing papers, doing research, all take place outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's crazy news! I used to go to NAU. I tried to fight the new rec. center from being built, but I failed.
ReplyDeletehttp://telemoonfa.blogspot.com/2008/01/letter-to-editor.html
I like this blog.