There has been a considerable amount of discussion on whether or not students should have their absences marked on their permanent records. Though it would be an effective tool in keeping students from skipping their classes, it appears too unrealistic to be properly enforced.

Many students may miss their classes, but it could be due to illness or some other legitimate cause. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to mark a student’s permanent record because he had to go to a funeral. It’s definitely cause for outrage against students, who would be up at arms over what they perceive fairly as an injustice. There would be large protests not only at Fresno City College, but on any campus where this system is enforced.

As great as it would be to stop students from skipping classes that others had been waiting for, the enforcement used is something of a catch 22, with the worst-case scenario being a full-blown epidemic.

If you don’t install a system that reprieves and pardons students with a good excuse, then they’ll be in fear of what shows on their permanent records.

They may even come to school sick and spread their illness to the other students. Anything from a minor bug to swine flu could be given to the sick person’s classes, and then you have a class epidemic.

Does hundred students walking around with facemasks strike one as the picture of a safe and healthy college that people would be lining up to attend? It would be a bad image for the college, one that could even stop students from enrolling altogether. And since there may not be a system of verification for the students, then a lot of students will be marked on their permanent records. Worse yet, some students may die from this irresponsible misstep in campus administration and student behavior.

If the student has a legitimate excuse for missing class, then they could perhaps get a waiver signed that will eliminate the mark from their record, but this brings in another set of challenges within itself. For example, how do we know that the student really does have proper grounds for the waiver to miss class?

A student could just as easily play sick or invent a doctor’s appointment just to miss class. Unless you have people following the student around, (which would be unrealistic and a violation of the student’s privacy) administrators would have no way of really knowing the ill students and the honest from the students crying “wolf.”

On the whole, it would be just one more bloated and easily cheated deal from the school and there would be no shortage of students who would be looking for a free ride. What’s worse, this would be a proverbial slap in the face to the students who can’t get into those classes.

Marking absences is just one of those ideas which are good in theory, but not in practice. It’s unrealistic, expensive, and worst of all, it poses potential risk to the health and well-being of the Fresno City student body. It can lead to fraud and abuse, or even wide-scale fear and abuse.

Nobody wants to see students skipping their classes, but who’s to say that their reasons aren’t just? Who’s to say they shouldn’t be pardoned if it’s important? And who are we to threaten sick and injured students with a black mark on their records for missing class?