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. 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 and fax or mail them to the professors within 24 hours.
If students want more detailed information sent to their professors they must sign a release of medical information form. The notes we write will be faxed or mailed to the professors by the clerical staff.
It is the policy of the SHS not to give students appointments during their class hours, unless there is a medically urgent problem that precludes the student waiting to be seen at a time when they do not have a class.
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, will not receive professor notes related to their illness.
