Author: Claudia Chow
Starting this semester, students will no longer be required to provide a note from Emmons Health Center to be excused from class due to a minor or moderate illness. Although the Dean of Students Office will alert professors of absences due to severe illnesses, it will be the responsibility of the student to directly communicate with professors about more minor health-related absences.
The decision to change the policy stemmed from an initiative by the Dean of Students Office; according to Associate Director of Student Health Services Matthew Calkins, he and Nurse Practitioner Roberta Dacus, the co-directors of Emmons, were not involved in the decision.
Director for Student Advocacy and Accountability Emily Harris explained that the decision was made from an efficiency standpoint, a sentiment echoed by Senior Associate Dean of Students Erica O’Neal Howard.
“Staffing resources were recently reassessed and it became clear that we need to focus on higher-level issues,” she said.
Another reason for changing the policy is an attempt to help Occidental students develop self-advocacy. The Dean of Students Office hopes that this change will make students feel more empowered in making their own decisions about class attendance.
“Occidental students have always been empowered to determine if they need to miss class while understanding that professors have always had the final word on class performance,” Howard said.
Julia Yeh, a Nurse Practitioner at Emmons, is in support of the change because she feels that some students abused the previous system, coming to Emmons in hopes of getting a note for an illness not truly severe enough to prevent them from going to class.
“In order to postpone an assignment, students would use their minor illness as an excuse,” Yeh said.
Yeh thinks that the old policy prevented students from learning how to productively communicate with their professors and hopes this change will inspire and challenge students to approach their education differently.
Yeh addressed her concerns to the Occidental student body. “We feel like we hold the responsibility to help [students] grow as productive, responsible, communicable young adults,” Yeh said. “We are trying to foster adulthood and responsibility.”
Yeh also noticed that this semester, fewer students are visiting Emmons than before. However, she is not certain that the decline in students is linked to the policy change.
History Professor Fangchun Li, like Yeh, believes that the new policy change will reduce abuse of the prior system and lessen confusion between students and professors.
“Students are better able to communicate their situations to their instructors directly,” Li said.
In contrast, Politics Professor Natasha Behl believes that this new policy change will make it harder for professors to track student absences because a note from Emmons made it clear when a student was sick and had an excused absence.
“I am fine with the new policy, but it might create more abuse by students,” Behl said. “I don’t think it is my job to monitor students. And so if they say they are sick, I say okay. However, I do not know if they are actually sick if I am not getting a note from Emmons.”
First-year Erica Fedornak believes that with the new policy it will be easier for students to skip class because they do not need proof of their illness. However, she believes it will make students more responsible because they can now determine whether or not they want to go to class.
“Students can choose to be absent every day, but it is up to them,” Fedornak said.
Senior Michelle Park likes the new policy change because she believes that needing a note from Emmons to be excused from class is too reminiscent of high school.
“We are college students,” Park said. “We are mature, and we know what we are doing.”
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