Issue date: 3/1/02 Section: Front Page

Physicians and nurse practitioners at the A.P. Beutel Health Center are following strict guidelines in adhering to Texas A&M University Student Rules when providing students with class excuses, officials said.

"The student rules about missing class because of illness are not being changed, we are just trying to apply it more consistently," said interim Student Health Director Terry Pankratz.

Pankratz said the biggest problem the health center faces with excuse notes is when students ask for a note to be excused from a missed class after they have been sick, without having seen a doctor at Beutel. Beutel employees cannot issue a medical excuse without witnessing the problem, because they cannot determine if the student was really sick, Pankratz said.

He said it is at the physician's discretion whether an excuse will be issued. Student Rules state that a student must be contagious or severeley ill to recieve an excuse.

Once an absence is excused, according to Student Rules section 7.5, it is up to the professor to provide the student the opportunity to make up the work, or provide a satisfactory alternative.

The time of year and the excessive amount of illness on campus may be the reason the wait for an appointment at Beutel seems longer, said Margaret Griffith, the health education coordinator for Beutel.

"Service from Beutel is in much higher demand right now because there are so many different illnesses going around this time of year," Griffith said.

Pankratz said the wait at Beutel also has a lot to do with students' schedules.

"The more flexibility in a student's schedule, the better the chance of them getting an appointment quickly," Pankratz said.

Walk-ins have to wait longer, and nurses do a preliminary need assessment to decide which walk-ins will be seen first, Pankratz said.

Beutel is open for appointments from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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