Limit on excused absences fosters spread of health problems 
This week, everyone at USC is trying to figure out their schedules for the year and how to possibly get it all done. It's no longer syllabus week. Now, professors and students are getting down to the nitty-gritty of it all. Now that we've celebrated the beginning of a new school year, we have to start doing the work and attending the classes.
USC has a strict policy for attendance. Only under extraordinary circumstances will a student be given an excused absence, though the enforcement of the rule does vary from professor to professor. Unfortunately, under this rule, there are very few sick days, as students are only allowed to miss 10 percent of the number of class meetings.
The reason for this rule is to make sure that students understand the importance of attending their classes and that numerous absences will not be tolerated by the university. I agree with this policy entirely. I am sure that before this rule was instated, students abused those excused absences and were constantly "suffering" from an incurable allergic reaction to homework.
I agree that attendance is vital to making good grades and continuing toward our college degree. I think the rule is a good rule. However, something is falling through the cracks.
It started with a cough in one of my classes on the first day of school. I didn't think much of it. The next day, it was three coughs and a runny nose. As of today, half of the class is sick or about to be. The common cold is spreading across the room like germs in a petri dish. The sheer number of students that come in contact with door handles and desks makes preventing colds from spreading impossible.
The attendance policy is a major plus when it comes to ensuring that students learn the material they are being taught but it fails to prevent the spread of pesky illnesses like colds and flus. While it is an admirable thing that sick students still make it out of bed and to their classes, the healthy students are shortchanged. Though commonplace illnesses rarely affect long-term health, they often can affect short-term quality of life. If a student doesn't feel well, he or she has more trouble concentrating on work, causing careless errors and mistakes. And as a result, healthy students spend class time trying to avoid airborne germs instead of listening to material.
The sick day has been abused in many situations and I realize why it has been severely limited at USC. The risks — some might say — far outweigh the benefits. But sick days exist for a reason. They not only allow a student to recover from a legitimate illness more quickly, they prevent the spread of said illness. And you don't have half the class coughing their way through American history.