Despite agreeing with the majority of Jamie Lynn Perna's opinion piece "Needless Classroom Policy 101" in the Sept. 4 issue of The Spectrum, I felt that there were at least two factors affecting "needless" policies that the author perhaps did not consider: immaturity and lack of common sense.
Both are character flaws that many UB students, despite being legal adults, seem to suffer. As a result, it sometimes appears necessary to nurse such students as they are, after all, the customers here at UB and as such better be kept happy.
It is an unfortunate reality that all too often very obvious facts and rules need to be spelled out for students as their ignorance and naivety could otherwise possibly endanger the good reputation of a faculty member, a department or even the university. This is comparable to warning labels on coffee cups and soda bottles where every child should know that coffee is hot and carbonated soda should not be shaken. There will always be that bad apple that will pollute the environment with their rage against a higher authority and possibly get rewarded for such immature behavior. If we can therefore restrain such people with "Common sense for dummies", then the environment should benefit.
In sum, I honestly can say that I am not surprised to see such obvious and basic rules spelled out on practically every syllabus. This is, after all, an environment where most students don't even vote in national and statewide elections, and guided thinking is the norm.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
