Due to an increasing number of students showing up to classes and the Student Medical Center with flu-like symptoms, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution last week suspending the institution’s attendance policy for the rest of the academic year.

The Faculty Senate previously had passed a resolution encouraging faculty to relax their attendance policies.

“We want to send a strong message to students that they should not go to class if they have flu-like symptoms,” said John Barrett, associate professor of law and president of Faculty Senate. “We respect the faculty’s ability to run their classes as they see fit. However, given the severity of the potential risk to our student-age population, it is imperative that we do everything possible to break the cycle of transmission. As such, Faculty Senate thought this was the best course of action.”

The full resolution is as follows: “[The Faculty Senate] resolved, that The University of Toledo’s mandatory attendance policy be suspended from this day forward through the current academic year for students with influenza-like symptoms without the need for documentation, provided that the faculty may require that they be notified of the student’s intent to miss class due to illness.”

Despite any illness, students are reminded they are still responsible for contacting their professors at the beginning of an illness, not after the fact, and for completing all course work and exams.

The University also continues to fight the transmission of the virus by holding vaccination clinics. This week, students and others in high-risk categories can receive the H1N1 nasal mist vaccine Wednesday, Nov. 4, from noon to 6 p.m. in the Crossings dining area and Thursday, Nov. 5, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Student Union Room 2579.

This entry was posted   on  Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at  5:59 am and is filed under  News, UToday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.   You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.