When I woke up 8 a.m. Monday, I felt as if I had been hit by a bus.
My muscles ached so badly that I did not want to roll over and check the time. Every time I swallowed, I felt a burning sensation in my throat. My head was so congested that even the sound of my obnoxiously load alarm clock was muffled.
After I finally got up and shut off the alarm, a fit of coughing forced me to lean over and brace myself on a chair. When the coughing finally subsided, I could taste blood in the sore spot in my throat.
Obviously sick, probably with some sort of virus, I knew I probably shouldn't go to class - not just for my own benefit (walking up Jeff Hill at 8 a.m. is not fun with a hacking cough and runny nose), but for the benefit of my classmates as well.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice.
I'm no longer in high school, where mommy can just write me a note so I can get an excused absence. I'm in college classes, where the teachers only let students make up missed work or turn in missed assignments in exchange for emergency room paperwork and jury duty summons. One of my teachers this year even told me a note from Hudson Health Center was not an excuse to miss class, though she added that Hudson no longer issued notes.
So I stumbled up Jeff Hill and into my desk in Bentley Hall and sat through four hours of class - four hours of spreading my germs to hundreds of my fellow students, despite my best attempts to sit in isolated areas and cough into my sleeve.
And when I went to class the next day, my classes echoed with sneezing, sniffling and hacking coughs.
My intention is not to attack professors for making kids come to class sick. In general, I think this is a good policy that reflects the real world. People can't just miss work every time they have a cough.
But sometimes, professors are a little extreme with their illness policies. Certainly there are times when students are not sick enough for the emergency room but too sick to come to class. Forcing these students to come to class just spreads the germs around campus and creates an unhealthy environment.
My proposal is to give students a certain number of sick days - just like any job in the real world. If students are too sick to come to class for a day, they can simply use a sick day and be allowed to turn in assignments late or make up any missed class work. Students who exceed their allowed sick days would not be granted such privileges.
Professors might argue that students would simply take advantage of this policy by using as many sick days as possible. While I admit this is a valid argument, I would be unwilling to accept it from any professor who has ever cancelled a class - for legitimate reasons or not.
If professors are given leeway to cancel classes for legitimate reasons with limited repercussions, students should be given the same leeway in attending classes. In both cases, there might be some individuals who abuse the system; unfortunately, this must be tolerated for the greater good.
I end my story on an ironic note. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling even worse than Monday and trudged up to the same class in Bentley Hall. I entered an empty room to find a note scrawled on the board.
My professor had gotten sick and cancelled class.
- Matt Zapotosky is a sophomore journalism major and The Post's city editor. Send him an e-mail at mz152904@ohiou.edu.
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Mike Zapotosky
