When students get sick or injured, their go-to place for health care is the campus health center. Between making an appointment to see a doctor and managing your symptoms, you may miss a class or two.
Most professors have a strict attendance policy. Lance Porter, a professor in the Manship school, is no different when it comes to students missing class due to illness.
“I expect some sort of proof…so a doctor’s note of some kind just explaining what was going on,” Porter said.
The golden ticket to save your grade is a doctor’s excuse. But the campus health center doesn’t give them out.
Julie Hupperich, the associate director of the health center, says that the policy is necessary to ensure access to students who really need medical attention.
“We found that some students would schedule elective appointments during an exam so that their able to get an excuse from that exam,” Hupperich said.
If an excuse is necessary there is one other option.
“We actually have cards that are called appointment verification cards that we can give you that can essentially verify that you had an appointment,” Hupperrich said.
 Sophomore Taylor Vaughn doesn’t think an appointment verification card is enough.
“What if you have a workplace off campus and they need an actual doctors note to excuse your absence? What would happen then?” Vaughn asked.
This policy has been in place since 2000. Nearly 15 years later, is it still serving the student body, or is time for a change?