Bryn Mawr College

Guidelines for Reporting Illness

 

Please get the rest you need when you are sick. If you need help getting to the Health Center, call Public Safety. If you have the flu, ask friends or your HA to bring you food from the dining halls. Please do not go to the dining halls if you have the flu or other contagious illnesses.

Communicate with your professors. If you miss class due to illness, send your professors an email to let them know that you are sick. Professors will understand that you can’t attend class when you are sick. In fact, they usually will be grateful that you are being conscientious about not spreading your germs to others! If you cannot email your professors because you are staying at the Health Center, the nurse will call your dean if you give her permission to do so. Your dean will then email your professors to explain your absence. Please give the nurse the names and email addresses of any professors who are outside the Bi-Co.

You do not have to obtain excuse notes from the Health Center or emails from your deans to “prove” that you have been sick. We assume that you are operating on the Honor Code, and we expect everyone to be guided by it in their communications with us and with their professors. The Health Center does not issue excuse notes, and the deans do not want to be in the position of routinely confirming that a student is ill.

If you are sick for more than a day or two, contact your dean. If you become very worried about falling behind in your course work, please share that with us. We will strategize with you about how to catch up with your work.

Try to request extensions in advance of the deadlines. Be realistic and ask for an extension before a due date arrives. Your professors will appreciate that you are planning ahead and being organized even when you are sick. Inform your professors of serious conflicts in making up tests or assignments so that an extension in one course does not lead to problems in other courses. If you have already been absent a number of times or have fallen behind in the course work before your illness, your professor may choose to contact your dean to discuss your situation.

Your dean does not have to write your professor for you to obtain an extension. However, if you are falling behind in more than one class and need more than one extension, please let your dean know. Your dean can help you coordinate due dates. Keep in mind that deans must be consulted if extensions go into the exam period or beyond.