Mental health complications are increasing rapidly among college students. As students, we must ask ourselves: what is our administration doing to address this issue? And what could they be doing better?

The current William and Mary policy on class attendance is decidedly vague. The policy details that, except for “reasonable cause”, students should be present at all class meetings; it does not define what is considered a “reasonable cause” to miss class. The policy also states that, per William and Mary honor code, “a student’s explanation of class absence is expected to be truthful and therefore, should be sufficient in most instances”; the instances in which a student’s explanation is insufficient are not elaborated on.

This policy results in varying attendance rules among undergraduate courses, many of which are as vague as the blanket policy. This can make it hard to discern what professors consider to be reasonable causes for missing class, and whether strained mental health falls under this category. This generally leaves students in need of a mental health day with two options: falsely claim to have some physical illness, or explain the situation honestly, and risk being denied an excused absence. This situation is complicated further when professors require students to supply a doctor’s note when missing class. For these reasons, I find it imperative that the current policy be amended. 

I am pushing for this policy to be amended; specifically, I propose that the “reasonable cause[s]” for which a student can miss class should be fully elaborated, and explicitly include excused mental health days. I also believe that professors should not be allowed to require doctor’s notes for excused absences, so as to make excused mental health days more accessible. 

The first step in actively supporting students’ mental health is acknowledging that it is as important as physical health; the universitywide policy that I am suggesting would accomplish this by treating physical and mental health absences equally.