To go to class or not to go to class? This is the common question popping into the heads of every freshman on campus. I am not one to worry about missing out on anything, but when it comes to class, I admit it, I have chronic FOMO. With my luck, I will attend 20 boring lectures in a row and then the one day I decide to take a break, Sabrina Carpenter will come as a guest speaker for the class. Also, freshmen have such a strict attendance policy, so I will never miss class. I understand the regular attendance policy, and I do agree with it, but I do believe that Villanova needs to re-evaluate the personal days policies to better benefit students.
I am a freshman. Low man on the totem pole, bottom of the barrel, you name it, that’s me. I understand that I need to be in class. I am the new student around here, and I have to show up and do well, especially since I am new to this whole college thing. But it does get very overwhelming. There are some days where my mental health is really not in a great place. The work can be so daunting that I lose faith in myself, not because of my abilities, but rather because of the hours of readings sitting on my desk. I want to be able to skip class and use the personal day. I really do. However, I feel like as freshmen, we don’t have enough.
Freshmen and transfer students, in my opinion, should have double the personal days that we are currently allotted as an effort to help with the transition into a new academic environment. In the same way that we regulate our personal days currently, I believe they should still be regulated. I am not naive enough to think people still wouldn’t try to cheat the system. But, mental health is a real struggle and being all alone in a new place with mountains of homework is a lot for an 18-year-old woman. I know that I can handle it, but sometimes I wish I could take a day off just to breathe. However, I have been saving my personal days for finals, so when I am really having a breakdown, I can do it in my dorm, rather than in the middle of my math class.
Also, we aren’t allowed to use these days before a holiday. Not every student lives a few miles down the road, and traveling around the holidays can be stressful with thousands of other non-college students also trying to make it home. Students should be allowed to use a personal day if they so choose in order to make sure they get home in time to spend a holiday with their family whether that be Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas or Easter.
“I definitely think we should be able to use personal days before breaks because many students have to book trains and flights to get home for break and prices tend to rise as it gets closer to each holiday [and] break, inconveniencing us financially,” freshman Sammie Morin said. “I do agree with the attendance policy for freshmen. I feel like the policy as of now is effective because missing more than twice the amount of classes that meet in a week I feel would set me really far behind and make it extremely difficult to catch up.”
This topic can be one of contention for many Villanova students with their professors because many staff members see things differently. I understand as an educator not wanting to have students abusing a policy, but are we willing to put students into such a gridlock that it stresses the mental health of others? There are certain battles worth fighting, and for me, this is one of them. As new students in this environment, we don’t just want but need these days off to catch up on work, or just take a break from our screens. The amount of hours I spend hunched over my laptop staring at the screen cannot be healthy. Villanova should re-evaluate the personal day policy with these thoughts and opinions in mind while also remembering that I do stand behind the main attendance policy, as most other freshmen do, as well.
According to the catalog for attendance provided by the Provost Office, “The University Counseling Center will use clinical judgment as to whether there is a legitimate need for the student to miss class for reasons related to mental health. If in the judgment of the University Counseling Center staff, the student should be out of class due to a mental health condition, the Counseling Center staff will request a written release of information from the student.” This current statement does not have any reference to a specific plan for first-years but does reference mental health days beyond the allotted amount for all Villanovans.
