Case 1: Visit to PUSH

Class Absence Excuse Discussion, ECE400, Spring 2012

A student misses one lecture. He asks that his absence be excused because he had to go to the Purdue University Student Health Center (PUSH) for health reasons. He shows you a piece of paper stating he did indeed visit PUSH on the date where he missed class (no time given), but the paper contains no detail about the nature of the visit.

• Shicheng Guo, Response.
  • In this situation, I would have the student go back and have the employees at PUSH modify the slip to include the time. I don't particularly care for the reason which they visited PUSH, as the student may have a condition that they wish to keep private, so I don't think that needs to be included. As long as they can prove that they were actually at PUSH at the right time, I don't think anything else matters.
    • Unfortunately, PUSH will not provide a time for the student's visit. All they will give is that little slip of paper, with the date and student name. -pm
    • I could have sworn that they included the time of visit on the little slip of paper?

• Artyom Melanich, Response.
  • To avoid this kind of situation in the future I would announce beforehand in the course policy that you would expect student to bring a proof of the visit to a doctor with a date and time on it, so it will filter out such students who use this excuse frequently and know all the details how to get a paper. However, if it still happens, I would ask a student to try to get a date, and if student shows some effors of actually doing that he would try to get a time of the visit. Anyways, I think that you need to trust a student no matter how he deals in this situation even if you see that he is trying to lie because he has a valid proof. Finally, what goes around comes around.

• Cody Cusic, Response
  • The student should go back to PUSH and talk to the doctor they had the appointment with and have them put the time down that they visited. If they really visited at that time then the doctor should have no problem writing it down. It's very possible that they just photocopied the paper from PUSH, and used it for all of the classes on that day, instead of just the times that they missed.

• Seth Strege, Response
  • I would classify going to PUSH as a valid excuse for missing class. In order to make sure that this excuse is valid it should be required that the student bring in some type of documentation from PUSH with an original signature. The signature could be from a doctor, nurse, or some other official from PUSH.

• Zhanibek Bekmurat, Response
  • In my opinion, if the student misses a class and brings a note from PUSH, the date as well as time should be indicated to be a valid excuse. Though, some would argue that getting time written is hard, I would say that it is quite easy. Last time I went, the doctor asked if I needed to include the time.

• Upsham Dawra, Response
  • As most of my colleagues above have pointed out, the problem lies not in visiting PUSH, but in making sure that it was a valid visit within the class times. Since the reasons for visit are personal information, any proof that the person did indeed visit PUSH at during the class period is a valid excuse in my opinion. The simplest way to do this would be to ask the doctor/nurse/official in charge to write a note with the date and time specified, and that they should sign off on it. It would be a good idea to incorporate this into the course guidelines so that all students are aware of the policy beforehand, and cannot claim ignorance.

• Keegan McGraw, Response
  • I believe this excuse is a valid one. This clearly isn't an excuse that is made easily as PUSH requires a student to have an appointment. It would also be a very difficult excuse to replicated more than once. I don't believe that any further investigation is needed or even allowed as to the privacy rights of the student. However if health issues become a recurring problem, I believe some more information can be gleaned by the teacher.

• Han Byul Park, Response
  • I also believe that this excuse is a valid one because the student has the slip from PUSH which states the time and date that he visited. If the slip does not look like an official slip from PUSH or without a signature from the Health Center officials, I would not give this student an excuse.

• Zachary Smith, Response
  • I would accept this excuse, a doctors note is one of the few legitimate excuses for missing a class. I wouldn't worry about if the time actually fell during class, as one student mentioned, what goes around comes around. Some may also say that a visit to PUSH as punishment enough for trying to skip class.

• Craig Lechlitner, Response
  • I believe this excuse is valid because it would be a valid excuse for missing work. However, I think there should be a limit on how many classes may be missed (equivalent to a company giving their employees a number of sick days). College should prepare students for careers, and the absence policy should reflect what is typical at companies.

• Stephen Zabrecky, Response:
  • This is a valid excuse if the student presents an authentic note from PUSH. It might be a good idea to have a blank copy of related PUSH documents on hand to verify authenticity. If no note is given or there is reasonable doubt that the provided is real, the absence should not be excused after further questioning the student.

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