When Dan Weinstein, CC ’12, missed a week of classes and two midterms last semester after getting the flu, “teachers were just as eager to keep me out of class as I was,” he said.
Weinstein said that his professors were understanding and flexible. When he called Health Services to report his symptoms, he was told not to come in to the offices. Health Services contacted his dean, who sent messages to the teachers of classes in which he was missing exams.
“My experience wasn’t particularly bad, but I can understand how students would find themselves in rougher situations. ... It can be a nightmare to reschedule exams,” Weinstein said.
While the swine flu scare may have subsided, administrators are still streamlining the processes for reporting flu-like symptoms and addressing illness-related academic underperformance.
Students have expressed concerns about the perceived lack of procedure during the flu epidemic, particularly when their professors continue to enforce strict absence policies. “My concern is that without new attendance policies, students will be penalized unfairly for missing class because of legitimate illness,” said Valentine Edgar, a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Science and University Senator for GSAS/Humanities.
Edgar said the issue came to her attention after a friend who TAs a large lecture course received an e-mail from a student on the day of an exam that said that he was too sick to come to class. But “without a note from Health Services, or a clear policy articulated by the professor or the University, how can the TA determine whether the student is truly ill and should be excused or not?” Edgar asked.
Columbia University Health Services has followed advice from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Last fall, the CDC issued a publication directing schools and universities on how to deal with H1N1. The publication recommended that teachers and professors be lenient with students using medical excuses. “The goal is to get people to stay home until they recover,” said Dr. Marcy Ferdschneider, Director of Primary Care Medical Services at Columbia.
Ferdschneider said that there has been a joint effort on the part of Health Services and the University administration to disseminate the information received from public health authorities, including the recommendation that professors be more lenient on student absences.
“The general expectation was that medical offices ... would be overwhelmed with influenza-like illness, so as recommended by the CDC, we discourage people from asking for medical notes,” Ferdschneider said.
Students with flu-like symptoms are encouraged to come or call in to Health Services. Students are directed to contact their advising dean, who will tell deans and professors about the student’s illness as necessary.
Columbia’s system differs from Barnard’s, which allows students to report their illnesses online or by phone. This information is incorporated into an online system to which ResLife and professors have access. Ferdschneider said that although Columbia does not have such a system, “what is important here is a consistency in approach” among Columbia’s schools.
While Health Services has also outlined web-accessible general procedures for students with flu-like symptoms, there is a worry that professors are not adapting their normal absence policies to the ongoing epidemic situation. “It’s my sense that professors have not responded proactively,” Edgar said.
Dehlia Hannah, a teaching assistant in Barnard’s philosophy department, said that many of her students have brought her notes from Health Services or doctors for absences due to illness.
Hannah said that while her general absence policy is that students are not to miss class except in case of medical or family emergencies, “if a student is ill who is normally in class, that is okay and I would not require a note.”
Barnard’s primary care center does not give full medical-excuse notes with a diagnosis, but notes with date-and-time confirmations that the student has been seen at Health Services. “We have an Honor Code, in which we rely on students to tell professors their diagnoses themselves,” said Brenda Slade, Director of Barnard Health Services.
Slade added that the number of patients seen with flu-like illnesses peaked in October, consistent with national data, and that although the epidemic is not over, “we are hoping that it has tapered off.”
Barnard received a significant amount of H1N1 vaccines, and is in the process of advertising it and encouraging students to be vaccinated.
Ferdschneider also noted the importance of preventative measures, the foremost of which is the H1N1 vaccine. Health Services now has plenty of the H1N1 vaccine, she said.
“Swine flu has sort of come off of people’s radars, but we don’t want people to have a false sense of security,” she said.
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