Many students skip the first day of classes at NKU, brushing them off as “syllabus days.” However, if you are a student attending NKU in the fall of 2014, you might want to make sure to be at the first day of your classes.

“It’s pretty common for students to skip the first class,” Pat Moynahan, university vice provost, said. “They think that nothing important is going to go on.”

Beginning next fall, if students are not in attendance the first day, professors reserve the right to drop students from classes to make room for people who need or want to take the class.

The policy will also apply to online courses.

“Students who don’t attend the first day of class or notify their instructor that they’re going to miss class will be dropped,” Moynahan said.

Some students don’t appreciate the new policy though.

“I bought One Direction tickets for Christmas for my niece for that week,” Carolyn Hartman, junior public relations major, said. “And I am not giving those up.”

According to Moynahan, the reason for the new policy is to respond to student concerns of class availability.

“The idea is to make sure that the students are going to come to class,” Moynahan said. “Plus, there are financial implications that relate to drop dates. There are those kind of things that are complicated if we don’t have some kind of reporting process.”

Moynahan said that the registrar office has put a system in place so that it will be checked multiple times a day, throughout the first week, to see if students are showing up to class.

As far as communicating the plan to students, Moynahan says they are running into difficulties, as students all prefer different ways of communication.

“The challenge now is to communicate it and make sure every student gets the word,” Moynahan said. “There’s not a one size fits all any more. Some students like to get it through social media, some through e-mail, and some students don’t want to be bothered.”