Staff EDITORIAL: Dean's excuses, minus deans

In response to mounting criticism of the current system and months of debate, administrators have recently taken the first steps towards revamping the University's dean's excuse policy. Pending the recommendation of a task force, students will likely be able to excuse themselves from a test or class without written confirmation from a parent or doctor. Such a proposal would benefit students by removing the bureaucractic obstacles to obtaining a dean's excuse, but is highly dependent on maintaining a high level of integrity among the student population.

The current dean's excuse policy has been under fire from students for some time. As it stands now, the word of a student alone is insufficient to excuse them from class or schoolwork. Sick students must make the trip to the Student Health Center in the Davison Building to be issued written medical verification of their condition. However, this policy means that students are needlessly occupied with attempting to "prove" their illness to medical staff, and filling out paperwork exactly at the time when they are the sickest, and should be resting in bed. Eliminating the need for a doctor's note would relieve legitimately sick students of having to jump through unecessary bureaucratic hoops.

In addition to students, Student Health officials are also recommending changes in the policy. According to Dr. Bill Christmas, director of Student Health, sick students often wait until recovering from their illnesses to attempt to obtain a dean's excuse. This puts health care workers in an awkward position, and takes valuable time away from sick patients and tasks that would otherwise deserve attention. Making doctors listen to students' attempts to "prove" their illnesses is a waste of everyone's time. Also, the newly implemented Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act places student s' medical privacy at risk by requiring health care staff to probe into a student's medical history beyond the scope of his or her present ailment.

The new policy will be centered around the notion that students themselves are best equipped to assess the seriousness of their illnesses or extenuating circumstances. In all likelihood, the new system will require students to provide some form of written notificiation of the reasons for their absence to their specific professors, and notify their dean of the situation. The role to be played by the dean's office is as of yet undetermined, but it should be charged with monitoring the excuses to look for patterns of repeated absences or dishonesty.

While such a student-based excuse system is appealing, it does raise important questions about academic integrity. The new system will undoubtedly leave more room for academic dishonesty and exaggeration of illnesses and other emergencies. There will surely be some people who take advantage of the new policy to get extra time to study or turn in a paper. However, if the system is to survive, the majority of students on campus must adhere to the stipulations of the Community Standard right from the beginning. It is essential that the student body demonstrate that it can handle this responsibility with integrity, or the University will be forced to re-impose a stricter excuse policy.