Students commonly ask SHS staff to give them a "note" to excuse them from classes. We have no authority to excuse students from classes.

We are able to provide professors with documentation of a student's presence in the Health Service at a particular time. We are also able to document whether the condition for which the student sought our help could be expected to significantly interfere with their ability to attend class and/or complete assignments or take exams. However, students must sign a Release for medical information to the professor(s) who are requesting such documentation.

Clerical staff is not permitted to provide such documentation. Only medical personnel are allowed to do so. Clerical staff will process this documentation at the request of medical personnel.

The notes we write are then faxed at the end of the day to the Professor(s) by the clerical staff.

It is the policy of the SHS not to give students appointments during their class hours, unless there is a bona fide medically urgent problem that precludes the student waiting to be seen at a time when they do not have a class. Students are seen during their class hours only for problems determined by one of our clinical staff members to be urgent in nature.

Students who call or come in and report that they have already missed classes because of an illness, not significant enough to cause them to seek medical care when the illness was present, and who are now requesting notes for professors, are to be told that we do not provide notes for such circumstances. However, students with this kind of claim and a recognizable ongoing illness, may be given an appointment for a medical evaluation within the ensuing 24 to 36 hours, if the Triage nurse feels it would be appropriate. Medical Excuse Notes in these instances can only be sent to the student's professors after the clinician who evaluates the student for the ongoing illness decides that the request is legitimate.

No health care professional or responsible adult expects students to seek medical care for routine minor illnesses during class hours, and their professors are expected to understand this, and deal administratively with the student in these situations, without referring the student to the Student Health Service . Presumably such situations are expected by the University administration to be covered by the permitted, non-excused absences per course policy.