It is the position of Campus Health Services that faculty should not require notes from medical professionals in order to excuse a student from a short-term absence from class or for missing an exam due to illness. Requiring notes results in students making appointments for short-term and self-limited illnesses ONLY for the purpose of getting a note. This takes up valuable resources and time that could be spent seeing students that truly need medical care. Instead, classroom policies should be structured to allow for routine short-term absences due to self-reported illnesses, including contagious illnesses, which are extremely common for university students and usually do not require medical care.
Illnesses of longer duration that require medical care and result in multiple days of missed classes may be handled differently. In these cases a medical provider may give a letter for a student. Students must see one of our health-care providers while they are ill, not after they have missed a few classes, recovered and have returned to class.
Students who are seen at Campus Health Services can request an Appointment Verification for any visit, but we discourage professors from requiring this for the reasons given above. Campus Health Services will not issue verification notes or letters without examining the student.