<p>quidnet34 - while your daughter is not very sick now, have her go buy some juice/water/tea,food, flu medicine for her room, and get an electric hot water kettle. Last year when my daughter was sick, what she couldn’t get at school was to have people bring food and liquid to her. I asked her a few times if she was drinking, she said her body ached so much she couldn’t get out of the bed, and everyone else was in class. Frankly, a lot of people maybe afraid to come near anyone who is sick now.</p>
<p>Of course check with your doctor, but our kids find Mucinex work very well when they have a lot of mucus due to any cold.</p>
<p>I find this difficult to believe because the student was cared for at Cayuga Medical Center. I would have expected a case of such complexity to be transferred to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse.</p>
<p>Thank you old fort! How ironic, I have just gotten Mucinex and juice and am sending it to her tomorrow am. I live about three hours away and am fighting the impulse to jump in the car and go get her (bring her home until she’s well and have her seen by our family Doctor) Oh no-update she just called:fever of 99.7. Not terribly high but such a concern given the current situation. She does not want to miss class but I am beside my self here. If it just a cold, do I yank her out of there the second week of school? Of course it is Sunday so my family doctor is not available-Any advice from an objective third party??</p>
<p>I share the same sentiments. I always try not to place my toiletries or cookware on the bathroom or kitchen counters because they are always disgustingly wet with particles that I wish not to name floating around. Having moved out of the North Campus dorms, I expected my neighbors (I live in an apartment building) to have a substantially higher maturity level than that of dorming freshmen. Why can’t people just clean up after themselves?!! Do us all a favor, and stop letting messes rot. It’s not so hard to wash your own plates or mop up the sink after you’re done splashing around in it, is it?</p>
<p>
I found out the hard way. Refer to my frostbite post.</p>
<p>I would leave her at school for now. They are not treating swine flu any differently than a regular flu. Since you are so close to school, you could easily get up there if she should get worse. My daughter called me last week, 7000 miles away, to tell me she had a cold. She was smart not to call me until she started to feel better. Where she is now is spring. I have been holding my breath for the last 2 months. She did bring Tamiflu with her.</p>
<p>As you can see, I am one for compiling tidbits of quotes that I feel reflect a great part of what has been expressed in this forum. I am compelled to ask that someone start a petition to the administration to implement a new policy regarding absences without penalty due to contraction of swine flu. The students are selfish, but reasonably so–we are paying ~$50K a year to sit in on classes and to work our butt off for that piece of paper to show for our work after the 4 or so grueling yrs here, so it’s no surprise that our mindset is directed inwards to our own academic needs–and will not think of the consequences of their sitting in class, trying to stifle their coughing amidst hundreds of other students. The professors, likewise, don’t want to fall behind on covering their lecture materials; they are getting paid to teach, of course, and if the students don’t go to class, the professors won’t be able to earn their salary.</p>
<p>In the end, I think that Cornell has to look outside the box, outside of financial and prestigious issues, and focus on the well-being of those who make up the majority of their institution: the students. Health should be the main priority here. Rigorous competition cannot be had if our students start falling like flies (knock on wood); a week off during the most severe part of flu season in order to quarantine those infected may be able to play a large part in limiting the outbreak and in the eventual healing of the students who are MADE to get rest rather than staying up past their bedtime working on their assignments.</p>
<p>Cornell has foreseen the swine flu “epidemic” and has implemented a generous swine flu absence policy before the semester even began.</p>
<p>Basically, if you have the swine flu, stay home, no questions asked. You don’t even need a note from Gannett. Anything missed can be made up at a later date.</p>
<p>Could you please post such email on this forum? I get email notification on Mr. Skorton’s whereabouts (including the one that he is in NJ this afternoon), but I do not remember seeing one about Cornell’s policy regarding swine flu.</p>
<p>I would also like to see the written Cornell Swine Flu Policy. My concern for my daughter is such that I expect that she would go to class with an IV pole dragging behind her rather than fall behind. Even if she just has a cold now, her defense are down. I don’t think that the University has done enough to convey that students are not going to be penalized for absences at this point. I know my daughter said that if she is to miss chem lab, she needs to notify the prof. in advance-for permission?
Anyway as Oldfort has suggested, I am leaving my daughter on campus now but I have real sense of trepidation. I emailed Skorton this morning, sharing my concerns as a parent. It is just heartbreaking to think that some student has already died from this. Prayers for his family.</p>
<p>Best I can do is this email from one of my professors. The minutes for the meeting is not up yet. I’d suggest everyone to email their professor if they are sick just to confirm.</p>
<p>It sounds more like instructors are “encouraged” to offer make-up exams, delay due dates etc. I am not aware that any of my D’s instructors have communicated any type of policy. I think all of us are concerned that our kids will do what they’ve always done and go to class and do their work, despite how badly they feel. It would be impossible for most of them to work ahead considering the already heavy courseload they have on a day to day basis. </p>
<p>This is a tough predicament for colleges and their students and it sounds like the administrative approach at Cornell is inconsistent and not mandatory - which is probably the same approach followed by other colleges. I’m not sure if there is a better approach other than to close the university, so no one is penalized - although I can’t see that happening either.</p>
<p>And lots of them are doing those things. My math teacher has told us he will be very flexible with exams, office hours for makeups and sicknesses as long as students do not come to class sick. Also, my CS lecture has suspended the use of clickers for in class quizzes and attendance for the semester and allows a makeup period of assignments to be completed at home if a student misses a discussion section.</p>
<p>"other than to close the university, so no one is penalized - although I can’t see that happening either. "
LaurentheMom,
I agree with everything you said. Why do you think that the University would not close for a week or so in order to get this under control. Do you think it wouldn’t help or is it n economic concern?</p>
<p>in my freshman year i caught the flu (regular) and pneumonia right before prelim time, it lasted a week and killed any time i had to study -.-. my gpa dropped by .4 that semester, i didn’t even make onto the deans list hahaha. </p>
<p>anyway i definitely think cornell should make it easier to make up work. the professors should be more understanding as well.</p>
<p>gomestar- I have enjoyed some of the posts that you have written in the past, but this past post was a bit abrasive. I understand your point that there are college students who pass away from untimely deaths every year but your attitude about the “sniffles” was over the top. My concern is more for the students that have a medical condition which puts them at greater risk for complications than it is for the healthy student that gets the flu. This is dangerous because the kids who have medical conditions have always gotten the regular flu shot knowing that they are at risk for complications. The problem is that this new strain does not have a vaccination so those students at risk for complications will not just “get the sniffles”. Keep in mind there are probably hundreds of kids at Cornell who fall into this high risk catorgory and even more if one was to consider asthma as high risk. As you can see this has the potential for being extremely dangerous for so many of your fellow classmates.</p>
<p>the point about high risk people is very fair and worthy, I do not mean to keep my abrasion to them. Rather, its the germaphobes that are running arround with thought of terror for what would amount to be 4-6 days of relatively mild symptoms.</p>
<p>I agree that avoiding hysteria is critical. I’m also worried about the kids who get sick, without being high risk, and don’t take their condition seriously. This really is not just related to this apparently very contageous flu, but to any type of contageous illness on a college campus.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s necessary to close down the university and I wouldn’t suggest that. That’s about the only real step any university could take to stop the spread of this virus - but it seems too drastic to me. </p>
<p>Because of what appears to be the highly contageous nature of this virus, kids with the sniffles/slight fever need to be much more cautious and avoid those that are high risk. Kids who get sick need to take their illness seriously, avoid others and take care of themselves.</p>
<p>Cornell also needs to have a uniform policy - not “suggestion” that students can listen to recorded lectures online to avoid the need to go to class and also that they can make up their work if they are sick. It’s not clear that there is a problem at this point, but more students would be comforted if they knew that they could stay home/make up work without penalty.</p>
<p>I was back on campus this Friday for the first time in nearly 2 years. Life seemed normal there, it was nice. I agree with Lauren’s post, students just need to be smart (seriously, don’t go to any parties) and get some Purel (note: there were even Purel pumps between the food line and beverage line at the dining hall I went to, AND at the door)</p>
<p>also, I thought I read this morning that the cases being reported at Gannet has decreased over the past few days. I forget where I saw it, either the Sun or the Chronicle</p>