Despite a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the state, students who test positive will not receive a University Approved Absence. No one wants to be sick in their 300-person lecture and receive side eyes from classmates every time they cough, but the University of Approved Absence Office’s strict criteria decrease incentive for students to stay home.
Only significant health conditions that cause students to be absent for around five or more consecutive class days will be approved. This includes “severe communicable diseases that require isolation.” While this would have included COVID-19 a few years ago when a 14-day isolation period was expected, new CDC guidelines only require isolation until the person is fever-free for 24 hours with no fever-reducing medicine.
Regardless, COVID-19 and other unapproved illnesses like the flu, strep throat, upper respiratory infections and stomach bugs can still often mean staying at home and missing classes for multiple days.
Maybe there were, or still are, kids hoping to pull a “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and miss school to goof around, but it’s unlikely a first-year struggling to avoid being weeded out of Chemistry 101 feels that way.
For students already feeling pressure to succeed, the fear of falling behind without a UAA guaranteeing accommodations pushes them to attend class while sick. Maybe they shrug it off, say it’s not that bad or that it “must just be a cold,” only to later realize they were patient zero as other students begin dropping from the class like flies.
Needing documentation for the UAAO and professors alike can make it harder for students already struggling. Unlike COVID-19, which can be easily documented with a positive at-home test, less pervasive illnesses like food poisoning don’t have simple forms of documentation. A doctor’s note would likely suffice, but most cases of food poisoning are not severe enough to warrant a doctor’s visit, especially given the cost of healthcare in the U.S. While Campus Health visits are included in the fees for full-time students, those without personal vehicles have the option to use public transportation or walk in the elements while sick, both of which are recipes for disaster.
The UAAO’s website says instructors shouldn’t require a UAA for every absence. Many professors grant students a small amount of absences that are not university-approved — usually around three — before students are penalized, but it is ultimately up to the individual professor. Penalties can also range depending on the professor from none at all to an entire letter grade dropped for the class.
If you’re like me and happen to get both COVID-19 and the flu in one semester while taking a four-credit-hour class that meets four out of five days a week, three absences isn’t going to cut it.
Additionally, those with a UAA must provide documentation to support their excuse but are not required to share it with their professors. However, students forced to communicate directly with their professors may be asked to provide reasoning, putting students in the awkward position of having to potentially send their professors obituaries of anyone that is not a direct family member.
