Flu season is an especially interesting time for college students.Like some kind of twisted quasi-holiday, classes suddenly drop to half-strength. Huge auditoriums are suddenly silent, interrupted only by the drone of professors and the occasional cough echoing through the open chambers.Sometimes even professors come down with the flu, and classes get canceled for a week.As much fun as flu season is for the hale, symptom-free students who get a few canceled classes and relaxed lecture sessions, it can be easy to forget how big — and dangerous — a problem flu season is.The dangers of the flu are obvious. Any serious student fears missing class, and a solid attack by influenza can and does routinely put students out for days or even weeks. And, because there will always be those strong-willed souls that shoulder their backpacks and head to class even while hacking up their lungs, whole classes of students are put at risk. The cramped quarters, tiny desks and long, narrow rows of lecture halls and classrooms provide a petri dish for sickness to spread. And, in case you haven’t heard, flu-juice from coughing and sneezing can stay on surfaces active and ready to infect for hours at a time.Forget doorknobs  — try not to think about desk how many people have sat over the desk or table at which you’re sitting, coughing and sneezing their germs all over it.Sorry. The proper solution isn’t, as comforting as it may be, to carry wipes and hand sanitizer in a holster.It’s a lot less complicated than that. Students need to get vaccinated.A lot of people (especially students) tend to shy away from getting vaccines. The arguments they dig up to discourage the process are weak at best.First, the vaccine is dangerous. Widespread rumors about the release of the new swine flu vaccination have proclaimed that the process was rushed, and that the medicine is a cocktail of dangerous chemicals that cause more harm than good.The truth — it isn’t dangerous at all.The swine flu vaccination is merely a slightly modified variation of the exhaustively tested, widely used shot for the regular flu. Neither of the shots have displayed negative effects in any meaningfully large segment of the population. Instead, they do exclusively what they were designed to do — keep people from getting sick.The second rationalization for leaving yourself unprotected is one we’ve all heard before. “I’ve got a great immune system. Getting a vaccine will just cost me money and time — it’s not worth the effort.”This argument makes two points, and they are both equally invalid.First, unless you’re a genetic experiment or a mutant, nobody has a perfect immune system. Just like a highly-trained soldier or a veteran police officer never refuses a bullet-proof vest, even a “good” immune system should never be denied the chance to get a little extra boost.This argument might make a little more sense if it’s corollary — the benefits of vaccines aren’t worth the cost and time of obtaining them — weren’t completely bogus.University students certainly can’t claim that shots are too expensive or too inconvenient. The Student Health Center, right here on campus, will be offering flu shots for $10 and a student ID.Yes, college students are poor and need to save money, but $10 is hardly going to break anybody’s budget. Yes college students are busy with class, but 15 minutes will hardly put anybody in a huge bind.If you’re too stubborn to spend minimal effort to protect yourself, at least put in that effort to protect your peers. The flu spreads faster on campus than rumors on Sorority Row, and none of us want to miss a week of class because some lazy fool decided our health wasn’t worth $10.Matthew Albright is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_malbright.—-Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]