H1N1 calls for new attendance policies

Last week, there were four confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus reported on campus and, without further testing from Health Services, it’s impossible to know if even more students have caught a piece of the epidemic. Yet, instead of staying home, students all over campus are slurping down DayQuil and popping a couple Sudafed before they walk to class because many professors are sticking to their usual attendance policies.

There are some faculty members that have been lenient and told their students to stay home at their discretion, and we applaud them, but they are too few and far between right now.

The majority of teachers we’ve seen and heard have been sympathetic, but intolerant to change. Some tell their students to stay home if they’re sick but throw in a little addendum about how missing more than three classes drops your grade a letter or results in failure of the course. One student we talked to even said their professor told them they would be on “thin ice” if they missed another class, even if it was because they were sick.

Now, maybe that policy works in any other year, but when the country has declared a state of emergency – as President Obama did with the H1N1 virus last month – we think that calls for extenuating circumstances.

Whether that means requiring a doctor’s note to stop a few students from trying to cheat the system or trusting a student’s judgment is up to the professor, but something needs to keep these sick students from the classroom.

It creates anxiety for the sick and risks the health of the healthy. The disease is contagious and you don’t want to spread it, but what if you’ve already had two absences and there’s a huge test coming up? Most kids will suck it up and take the exam, but professors should take that choice out of students’ hands. Spending a few hours creating a make-up exam will weigh infinitely less on a teacher’s conscience than seeing one of their students rushed from class to the emergency room.

If even one percent of UNH undergrads have caught the flu, that’s more than 120 cases. Chances are, with how fast the virus has spread in other places, the numbers could be even higher than that.

The threat is serious. It doesn’t call for panic just yet, but when students have to weigh their grades against their health, something is out of whack. Professors, get your priorities in order.

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6 comments

BTK

Wed Nov 11 2009 16:57

Attendance policies at the university are ridiculous anyway. We are grown adults, if people want to skip class let their grade suffer and reflect it.

Kate

Tue Nov 10 2009 15:07

"Whether that means requiring a doctor’s note to stop a few students from trying to cheat the system or trusting a student’s judgment is up to the professor, but something needs to keep these sick students from the classroom."

It should be worth noting that it's UNH Health Services policy to not give out sick notes. Try telling on-campus freshmen (who don't have cars) to go off-campus to the hospital, pay a fee (for me it'd be around $100) to get seen, and get a sick note. Not likely to happen.

Teachers should be slightly more lenient this semester. It seems the liberal arts courses have that miss 3 classes and drop a letter grade thing. Maybe the teachers can flout that this semester? Health Services said they're flooded, so this is an extraordinary year. And President Huddleston has requested, multiple times, for teachers be more lenient now. Equally non-sick students shouldn't "play" the system.

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 14:07

To person posting at 10:48, yes the h1n1 strain is mild, but it is unusual as it is striking children and young adults in ways that we've seen the seasonal flu strike older adults. I know healthy teens who are in the hospital now because of it. And while it is mild, this virus is not something that should be taken lightly. We need to avoid spreading it. Just because it won't kill most healthy people does not mean it won't have serious health effects if passed on to someone with a lowered immune system, someone with diabetes, the list goes on. It is selfish to think that just because "we" are not at risk, that it doesn't matter if others get it. Yes, precautions can be taken, but sick people also must also stay home. End of story.

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 10:48

The H1N1 virus is another strain of the flu virus. The media heightens the story by talking about the 1 child who died from H1N1, while in most years, many thousands of people die from the regular flu virus. The idea that this is some plague is ridiculous. It is the Flu, not Ebola. Any flu like illness is avoidable if you take care of yourself; this isn't something that simply 'happens' to you like the weather.

Question authority? You need teachers to teach. Questions those who think they can simply learn on their own.

Stop whining; take care of yourself; go to class!

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 09:21

As a UNH parent I think attendence policy should be dropped during this semester otherwise the entire campus will be ill including the professors. In the dark ages when I went to college there was no attendence policy and some how we learned the consenquences if we didn't go to class. And we didn't have lap tops and the internet to allow us to do a paper and email it to our professors. Why not use these tools now and have virtual classes to help lessen the spred of the H1N1 virus? Come on professors get creative...you have the tools!

Mike

Tue Nov 10 2009 08:48

Someone who's on thin ice for missing another class - sounds like that person missed classes before. They were all emergencies, too?

That said, people in authority so often make unilateral decisions, simply because they can. They think it's *their* class. I know there's a direct correlation between attendance and performance, but if somebody does have the performance, there's no justification for a penalty. There used to be a slogan, "Question Authority." Last I heard, the more years one spends in school, the more likely one does as instructed, without question.

Instructors get away with this arrogance because students need the grades to better serve our capitalist system. Professors and instructors often teach students material for the sole purpose of asking questions about that material on exams, and NOT because it was particularly useful information. Grades are emphasized over learning, which gives instructors undue power over students. One attends classes and hears what about what the instructor expects, as though that's important. And, it is, because they have you by the grades. This is a system made for abuse.

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