Medical Excuse Policy

MEDICAL EXCUSE POLICY

The Union College Student Health Center does not provide excuses for students who miss classes, assignments, or tests due to short-term illness, injury, or mental health problems. This is a revised policy as of 1/5/2026 and is consistent with our peer institutions.

The Student Health Center will work with students who have chronic or serious illness, injury, or disability to provide care and documentation as necessary. In these situations, notifications will continue to be sent from the Class Deans Office through Notification_DOS@union.edu. If students need help navigating their health and attendance, they can contact their Class Dean or the Accommodations Office at accommodations@union.edu, depending on their circumstances.

Students often seek care at the Student Health Center solely “to get a note” for illnesses and problems that do not require professional attention, such as the common cold and self-limited gastrointestinal illnesses. This is problematic for the following reasons:

1. It creates a financial hardship on students who have to use insurance coverage or pay out of pocket for an urgent care or ER visit to obtain a “note”. Students often seek care unnecessarily at the urgent care or ER when they are aware of our note policy.
2. Health Center schedules can fill up quickly with these types of visits, leaving fewer openings for sick students.
3. It exposes healthy students to illness.
4. Students often come in to be seen after the illness or problem, and the provider has no verifiable way to know if the student was ill or incapacitated, relying solely on the student’s history. As medical and mental health professionals, we take the student’s report as the truth.
5. The student may fabricate illnesses or exaggerate symptoms to obtain a note, and then that report becomes a permanent part of their medical or mental health record.
6. Requiring a visit to the Student Health Center is a time burden on the student.
7. Many students state that an instructor requires written or specific medical/psychological information to be excused from a class. Requiring a student to share this private information compromises patient confidentiality.
8. Most importantly, it is counter to our mission of educating our students to be wise consumers of healthcare when we require them to seek out professional medical or psychological care when self-care is sufficient.

The decision to excuse a student from class should be based on a conversation between the student and the instructor, without requiring a medical or mental health provider to become involved. If faculty have questions about how a student’s absence or illness impacts class participation or assignments, they are encouraged to contact the student’s Class Dean.

If your professor is requiring a note for a missed class, feel free to give them this letter explaining why we are not providing a class excuse.