The university has a lot of policies that make life inconvenient for students. But only one university policy makes me sick.
In 2004, the University Health Center, at the request of the Campus Senate Executive Committee, stopped giving out class excuse notes for sick students unless they have been hospitalized or been sick for more than a week.
Under the new policy, there is no way for a student to get official documentation of their illnesses from the only health facility on the campus if they are sick for less than a week. Instead, students must complete an honor code note attesting to the fact that they are sick.
But the problem is that professors do not have to accept the notes. Many professors will make note of this in their syllabuses, telling you that if you are sick, you must scramble to find an off-campus doctor in order to get an excuse note.
This policy is unfair because it assumes that a private doctor is affordable to every student. As of last year, 6.6 percent of students enrolled at this university did not have health insurance, meaning they would most likely not be able to afford a private doctor. This leaves them at the mercy of the health center and “the note.”
Even if a student is able to afford a private doctor, it does not necessarily mean one is readily accessible. Think about it: Unless you have family nearby, how do you expect the 23 percent of out-of-state students and 2 percent of international students to have access to a private doctor?
So why did the Senate Executive Campus Committee implement this policy in the first place? According to the minutes of its April 22, 2004, meeting, the policy was set up in order to curtail fraudulent visits to the health center. But the problem is, this policy still contributes to fraud, just in a different way.
If a teacher is willing to accept an honor code note, all a healthy student has to do to get out of a test is fraudulently fill it out and hand it in. Voila! He gets an extra few days to study.
Under the old system, students were simply given a note stating they had been seen by someone at the health center. Obviously, that system was not the solution, and under both, medical professionals are not allowed to take professional responsibility.
Here’s a solution: Qualified health center officials should be able to determine whether a students are actually sick, and if they are, then they should be issued an excuse note. If the medical professional finds the student is not sick, then they should not be issued a note.
The whole notion of the honor code note under the current system brings up another important issue: Professors see these notes every day and are probably skeptical every time they see one. It’s kind of like those breaking news alerts on cable news: You see them so much that you stop believing that it’s actually breaking news. Just as that example devalues the notion of breaking news, the health center’s note policy devalues the legitimacy of sick individuals’ plights and puts the whole honor code into question.
This policy goes against the best interests of students and leads to more fraud. It’s time for the university to take responsibility for the well-being of its students.
Joel Cohen is a junior government and politics major. He can be reached at jcohendbk@gmail.com.
