Nearly a year after administrators abolished the Dean's Excuse, undergraduates and professors remain largely unfamiliar with the new Short-Term Illness Notification Policy.
Stuck in bed with a looming midterm? There’s no need to trek to Student Health for an excuse—you can use the official method for notifying professors that you’re sick without even leaving your room.
An online form, accessible from the T-Reqs website about Trinity College policies and the Pratt School of Engineering’s online listing of rules and procedures, officially replaced Dean’s Excuses for short-term illnesses October 2003. Nearly a year later, undergraduates and professors remain largely unfamiliar with the new Short-Term Illness Notification Policy.
“I haven’t had anybody use it yet,” said Professor Richard A. Palmer, who teaches General Chemistry, one of Duke’s largest lecture classes. He noted that the situation might change during midterm week.
Missing a midterm or the deadline for a homework assignment because of sickness is exactly the type of reason students would use the Short-Term Illness Notification Policy. After logging in with their NetIDs and passwords, students can fill in the blanks and send standardized e-mails to their professors, promising to make up graded work in accordance with class policy and affirming their adherence to the Community Standard.
When illness strikes, however, students often prefer to communicate with their professors through more informal channels, such as personal e-mails. Even those who know about the policy do not use the official form. “I’ve only tried to use it a few times,” junior Michael Kenney said. “I couldn’t find it.”
Students and faculty agree that lack of awareness is the biggest difficulty with the policy. Fears that students might abuse the convenience of having an online form have turned out to be largely unfounded, as professors report few problems.
“My concern is, obviously, I teach a really big class, so if a lot of students self-report illness, how do I deal with that in the context of 300 students?” asked economics professor Lori Leachman, who had expressed her worries during the special joint session of the Arts and Sciences Council and the Engineering Faculty Council that approved the policy last year. Students, however, have acted more responsibly than she expected. “So far, I’m going to say it’s worked well,” she said.
Academic deans have not even found it necessary to keep statistics on how frequently students miss work due to illness. Although they have investigated the records of the few students whose professors have reported a suspicious pattern of absences, misuse of the form has not been widespread.
“Only when something really comes into question is there any need for the deans to do a follow-up,” said Kay Singer, associate dean of Trinity College. “I don’t think anybody’s seen anything unusual.”
Students appreciate the faith in undergraduates’ judgment that the policy reflects. “We should be trusted with it,” said Maya Lloyd, a sophomore. “It would be a shame for those few who misuse it to take it away from everyone.”
One benefit of the current policy is that students can fill out the form and focus their energy on getting better instead of walking all the way to Student Health on Flowers Drive for an excuse.
“We were sending a lot of students to Student Health who were really better off taking two aspirin, going to bed and drinking orange juice,” Singer said.
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