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College life can act as a bridge to your adulthood and career: You take specialized classes, often while working or maintaining an internship, and that can be a lot of stress. Sometimes college life can make you feel like your brain is melting. 

So when those days pop up and you’ve realized it’s midweek and you have not had a single day that was not dedicated to working a full shift or attending a full course load — or both — and your brain melt is fully initiated, it’s OK to skip class. 

Now, I’m not recommending you skip class regularly. It’s a costly choice, literally. Also, if you’re not getting the notes from a friend or your professor refuses to work with Canvas despite it being the main network for scheduling, there is a chance you can fall behind. 

You shouldn’t make a habit of it, but needing time to do things outside of your robotic routine is nothing to feel shame over. Sometimes you just need to turn on a trash TV show and zone out. 

The main issue that might affect your decision of whether to push through the exhaustion and show up to your 8 a.m. or sleep through it is how the professor feels about absences. Colorado State University professors, at least in my experience, have been pretty lenient when you communicate with them about missing class. 

However, there are a few who refuse to excuse you from class without a doctor’s note or some other documentation. I had a professor say that if your car spins out on the road and you get in an accident, that would not count as an excused absence, and your grade will drop as a result.

First, asking for a doctor’s note is classist. I grew up only going to the doctor when I really needed it, and that certainly was not when I had something as benign as a fever.

If I feel like I’m nauseated and clearly ill, I’m not going to show up to your class, sorry. There is no reason for a student to have to leave their house, sick, and go all the way to the CSU Health and Medical Center to be told they have a fever.

“When you write to a professor to inform them of an absence, it’s not asking for permission. It’s informing them that you will not be there. Why is it up to them to determine how much an event, injury, mental health situation or unforeseen obstacle affects their student and whether it’s an excused absence?”

I personally struggle with agoraphobia, which makes leaving the house, especially alone, impossible at times. This is a legitimate mental health condition, and it definitely affects my schedule, but I understand how it sounds silly to someone unfamiliar with how it affects your mindset. 

I’m on top of note taking or asking other classmates for their notes when I miss class, but with some professors, I still have to either make myself violently uncomfortable and panicked or be punished with a point deduction. It’s a lose-lose. 

It just seems stupid to force your students to prove to you why they’re going to be absent, especially if they are active in class when they are there. Colorado State University is home to students of different backgrounds and circumstances. If someone has to decide between attending their class and picking up a shift so they can afford their rent for the month, they should not be punished for choosing the latter.

When you write to a professor to inform them of an absence, it’s not asking for permission. It’s informing them that you will not be there. Why is it up to them to determine how much an event, injury, mental health situation or unforeseen obstacle affects their student and whether it’s an excused absence? 

If someone repeatedly misses class to the point of legitimately never being there, then let them take a bad grade. But for those who show up as much as they can and communicate when they will miss class, even if the excuse is not what the professor or instructor considers valid, why deduct points from their grade because they were honest?

Reach Bella Eckburg at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @yaycolor.