A doctor's note verifying an absence may not mean much

[Mark Stellmack]

When students miss required work, like an exam, it can be a hassle to us as instructors to arrange for a make-up.  And sometimes we wonder if we're dealing with a malingerer who was really just too lazy or irresponsible to meet the assigned deadline.  The University requires that we give students the opportunity to make up missed work in certain circumstances, one of which is student illness, and the instructor has a right to request verification for the absence.  One way to verify an illness is to require the student to provide a doctor's note.

The problem is that the doctor's note may not mean much as a verification of an illness.  On one recent occasion, a student gave me a doctor's note saying that he should be excused from class for a 3-day period.  I was suspicious about the veracity of the note because the given dates of the illness did not agree with when I had seen the student around campus.  (More specifically, this student took me to lunch the day before the exam he missed and he showed no signs of the stomach ailment for which he supposedly went to the doctor.)

The note was from the Boynton clinic.  I phoned the clinic to ask about the note, and the nurse confirmed that the student had been seen by a doctor earlier in the week.  I asked why the note was dated several days after the date when the student was seen.  The nurse said that the student must have returned to the clinic and asked for a note.  She added that students can come into the clinic and simply request doctor's notes indicating pretty much whatever they want them to indicate, such as the dates when the student should be excused from class.  In other words, it was entirely possible that the note was not truly confirming or verifying any illness on the part of the student.  Given what I had observed of the student's behavior and other confirmed instances of scholastic dishonesty involving this student, I am confident that the note was meaningless.

The point is that even if a student provides a doctor's note "verifying" an illness, if you suspect that the student is not being straight with you, one option is to call the doctor's office and confirm the contents of the note.  At the very least, take appropriate precautions when permitting make-up work, for example, by giving an alternate form of an exam as a make-up rather than the same form that was given to the other students.