To alleviate long lines at the A.P. Beutel Health Center, the Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate is investigating alternatives to requiring students to provide documentation for medically excused absences.
Dr. Linda Lekawski, the director of Beutel, told the Academic Affairs Committee in September that the current system, which requires a doctor’s note documenting the severity of the student’s illness in order for absence from class to be considered a University-excused absence, is flawed.
“A high percentage of students are at Beutel just to get an excuse,” said Jerri Ann Henry, a senior animal science major and member of the Medical Excuses Subcommittee. “They go through the entire screening process, which increases costs.”
Henry said the problems of overcrowding at Beutel led to exploration of other options.
Difficulties for the health center arise when physicians are unable to document a short-term illness, a student suffers from a chronic illness that the health center cannot medically treat and when students fake illnesses to get a doctor’s note.
Cady Engler, chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee, said a recommendation on policy revisions will be discussed over the next few months.
“It’ll take a while to come to a consensus,” Engler said. “We will get input from wide resources before we make any changes.”
According to a report from the Medical Excuses Subcommittee, options for revisions to the current policy vary from changing to an honor-code based system, which would leave attendance issues between the faculty member and the student, varying the requirements for attendance based upon the course or requiring documentation for only long-term medical absences.
Michael Stephenson, assistant professor of communication, said he does not take roll in larger classes but does require medical notes for his smaller classes where attendance is taken.
“I would recommend for students to continue to get a doctor’s note now, because there has to be some way of guaranteeing that the student was really sick,” he said.
Henry said concerns have risen among faculty members who are wary of an honor-based medical excuse system when considering make-up tests and grading policies, especially for kinesiology classes that do not allow any absences.
“My concern as a student is that students need to be guaranteed if they are unable to attend a test, they can get out of it,” she said. “We need (a policy) that every faculty member is required to uphold, and too loose of a system might not guarantee that.”
Henry, who also serves on the Student Senate as the Academic Affairs chairwoman, said that when the Faculty Senate makes a recommendation for a policy, the Student Senate would also deliberate the recommendation immediately after.