Last week I was ill. I was tired, I had a sore throat and my stomach didn’t feel right. “Eh,” I thought, “I should stay in today. No reason to force myself to go to class — I don’t want to get sicker.” But sicker I got. I made a decision that many N.C. State students make every day. Rather than getting my rest, sipping tea and getting better, I decided to try to finish my projects and go to class and pretend that there wasn’t mucus dripping from my nose.My ailment was exacerbated not because of a drive to do schoolwork, but because of the hassle it would have taken to explain my excuse to my teachers. Students should not have to compromise on health.Students continually ask themselves: am I sick enough to go to the clinic? (Can I get by going to class?) I feel awful, how am I going to get to the clinic before my 8 a.m. class? Students should not have to make these judgement calls. We should be able to stay at home with our sore throat without feeling the need to prove that we were sick enough to justify an absence.The NCSU attendance regulations state that students qualify for an excused absence when they have an “illness or injury when certified by an attending physician.” Does this mean that when I feel a nausea in the morning, I need to get it certified? What does this certification entail? Must I provide pictures? The policy is ambiguous.What is worse is that the policy is based on the assumption that students will be dishonest about their illness, presumably to gain an unfair advantage on schoolwork. This is infinitely unfair to the student body, who are spending a lot of money and effort to do well in classes (and extracurriculars) to maintain NCSU’s premiere standing.I will concede that a policy that encourages better student health would be taken advantage of by dishonest students, but those students would be in the minority. At that, it would be easy to implement guidelines to the effect of “If there are many absences because of illness, it is reasonable that a physician corroborate that so ensure that classes remain fair.” The regulation also states that “the instructor’s attendance policy, including procedures for submitting excuses and for scheduling makeup work when the excuses are accepted shall be clearly defined in the syllabus…” How many of our syllabuses have a guideline? Several of mine do not, which leaves the interpretation up to the teacher. This is not fair to students.Not all teachers are unreasonable. Nearly all of my teachers were accommodating over the past week. Some TA’s even sent cheery emails to the tune of “feel better!” (and I do feel better – thank you!) I think, however, there needs to be a shift in mindset to trusting students more so that we can focus on being healthy.Send Jay your sick day stories at [email protected].