Health Services needs new note policy

By Adam Bagni
Collegian Staff
February 21, 2007

I started off my final semester here at La Salle with a bang. Actually, it was more like a runny nose and an irritating cough.

Thankfully, my symptoms weren’t serious enough to keep me bedridden. But the cold got me thinking – if those symptoms were serious enough to keep me out of class, I’d have a better chance of stealing a former professor’s hairpiece than getting a note from Health Services.

In all seriousness though, this policy has always baffled me. Last year, the editors of the Collegian seemed to agree, and wrote a rather scathing editorial that I was almost certain would provoke change. Unfortunately, it did not.

The biggest problem with this policy is that it’s extremely unfair and detrimental to students, like myself, who are not from the area. In fact, I have first-hand experience of its utter failure.

In the spring of my sophomore year, I came down with what was labeled at the time as the “death flu.” This flu was apparently passed around throughout campus, and consisted of all kinds of fun symptoms: vomiting, violent cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and trips to the bathroom of which I’ll spare you details.

I was almost positive that the nurses at the Student Health Services would write me a note of excuse for my impending missed class time. A represenative informed me that, despite the fact that I looked like a zombie from Night of the Living Dead, its policy did not allow for it. Acorrding to its Web site, Student Health Services “does NOT provide notes for missed class unless it requires a hospitalization or is a serious illness documented by their [students’] family physician.”

Almost all my professors took me at my word. However, one didn’t – she demanded a doctor’s note. When I explained to her that it is Health Services’ policy not to issue medical notes, and that my doctor was nearly 300 miles away in Boston, she simply refused to make an exception to her own policy. This wasn’t just any missed class either; this professor’s attendance policy was very strict, and I had already missed one class earlier in the semester due to a personal engagement.

I resisted my urge to ask this professor if I should have shown up to class with a bucket, and instead took my parents’ suggestion of simply calling my doctor. Fortunately, he wrote and mailed a note to my professor stating that I called him to say that I was sick, and that it was his medical opinion that it would have been a mistake for me to attend class. Thankfully, she accepted this note, which (by its own admission) was not based on any examination or diagnosis.

So how exactly did Health Services, which boasts on the cover of one of its brochures that it is “committed to your wellness!”, better serve me, the campus or my professor?

In its defense, there are certainly some issues with distributing notes to excuse students from class, the most notable being the fact that students may try to beat the system, and that the volume of students would most likely increase at the Student Health Center (which already produces long wait times – like 45 minutes for me to get a 10-second flu vaccine earlier this year).

But at the same time, there’s no doubt in my mind that people involved in Health Services are smart folks. To me, it should be up to the discretion of the Nurse Practitioner on duty in the Health Center to decide whether or not a note should be issued.

I find it funny that Health Services will also issue these supposed “health warnings,” which include the statement to not attend class if you develop symptoms, but then not issue a note to be excused from class. This seems like an obvious contradiction to me. By not issuing notes, some students like me are certainly going to end up going to class and potentially spreading illnesses to others.

In addition, writing notes would assist professors who demand these notes, and avoid a situation like mine, where a pointless note needs to serve as “confirmation” for an illness that may or may not have existed. That’s not to mention the fact that it would simply make things a lot easier for students who already have to deal with the many disadvantages of living far from home.

I think it’s important to note that Health Services does a wide range of things on campus that are commendable and of a significant benefit to this University’s students.

That being said, it doesn’t take a doctorate to see that this policy is not one of them.

bagnia1@lasalle.edu