Olin should give doctor's notes to sick students

Perhaps you’re reading this editorial in class. If so, take a look around you. Notice anything different? Chances are, the room might seem a little less full.

We all know what this means — the swine flu and other illnesses are hitting MSU hard. Heck, you might have the sniffles and not even be in class yourself. You could be reading this article at home, in bed or even waiting in line at MSU’s own Olin Health Center.

But if you are waiting in line at Olin, you should know that their doctors won’t provide you with an excused absence.

The university has made it very clear students experiencing flu-like symptoms should refrain from going to class, lest they be more likely to infect others. And this is very good advice on the part of university. So why is Olin — an entity of the university, we might add — refusing to provide excuses for students to miss class?

Granted, most teachers are understanding of the current influx of ill students, but in some classes where attendance is stressed, doctor’s notes are necessary.

When the university tells its students to stay home and the university’s own health center does not provide students the means to do so without penalty, we have a serious problem.

As a part of MSU, Olin should be following university policy, especially when that policy affects such important matters as students’ health and welfare. Olin needs to realize there are students who are not being excused for their absences simply because of Olin’s refusal to provide notes. The MSU administration should not allow this, and any student who has been penalized for missing class with a legitimate illness-related excuse should be credited.

Olin’s reasoning for not providing excuses to students is that it would use up too much “office time,” taking time away “from seeing people who are sick.”

We would ask Olin how students coming in with swine flu-like symptoms do not qualify as “sick.” Distributing doctor’s notes need not be a complicated and time-consuming process.

And is Olin or the administration really concerned that students would fake the flu just to get a doctor’s note? It’s highly unlikely a student would come into Olin, wait in line and risk getting infected, all in the hopes of retrieving a “coveted” doctor’s note. This is college — if a student wants to miss class, they are well within their right to do so.

It’s no secret Olin is not exactly a model of functionality and expedience. Most students won’t head to Olin just to miss class. With all the waiting around, they’d probably be more bored at Olin than in class anyway.

This asinine policy comes at a time when MSU strongly is considering moving Olin’s services to the MSU Clinical Center on Service Road to cut costs. We already have voiced our strong opposition to this change by stating that fewer students would seek Olin’s services if it was in a more inconvenient location. With the spread of wine flu, students already are going to other places, such as the Lansing Urgent Care Center, just to ensure proper care and a signed excuse. Olin appears to be making it very easy for students to go elsewhere — without moving at all.

If the university has told students to stay home and take care of themselves, it needs to support them with all of their available resources. By not providing students with a proper excuse to miss class, Olin is acting in disunity with the university’s wishes and potentially endangering students’ academic and, more importantly, bodily welfare.