University Events

Description: Even before the pandemic, attendance issues were a source of much discussion in higher ed. We know (of course!) that attendance matters, but being there in the classroom is a threshold rather than the solution itself. Now that students are returning to campus life that looks increasingly normal (whatever we mean by this) and with attitudes toward the various modalities they have experienced much changed, how have the events of the past two-plus years changed the way we attend to attendance? This open-ended coffee talk looks to open a year-long discussion, and considers several interrelated topics: what do we mean by attendance? How do people asses attendance, if at all? Where are the boundaries between being physically present and intellectually engaged—and where does the instructor’s responsibility begin and end? All this and more, in a free-ranging chat facilitated by Tom Hertweck to see what interests, ideas, and needs exist across UMassD.