Quit coughing on your friends – it won’t get school shut down.

During Sing Song week, rumors spread on Twitter that 17 percent of the student body had the flu and if the number got up to 20 percent of the student body, campus would shut down for a week. However, according to the Office of Student Life, these rumors are “unfounded.”

Mark Lewis, dean of students, said he too heard of the rumors circulating on social media about school closures. But Lewis, along with Chris Riley, vice president of student life, verified that no such policy existed at the university, even with so many students coming down with the flu and other sicknesses like strep throat and bronchitis.

“Yes, it looks like the flu has hit the ACU community full force,” Lewis said in an email. “To use Chris’ word, the rumor is ‘unfounded’. There is no policy in place that says the school will shut down.”

Steven Rowlands, director of the Medical and Counseling Care Center said in an email to students, “We also have received questions about classes being canceled based on a certain number of students having the flu. This is a rumor; what we are experiencing is similar to what is happening throughout Texas, and we expect it to pass in the near future.”

According to an Optimist twitter poll, 59 percent of the 425 respondents had the flu – which breaks down to roughly 250 people. 41 percent of those sicklings participated in Sing Song.

Cindy Gravitt, office manager for the MACCC, said every appointment was booked this week through Friday, but the clinic does expect some cancellations.

“We have been very pleased with the increasing number of patients utilizing the patient portal to schedule and cancel appointments online,” Gravitt said. “There have been mornings that we’ve come in to find twenty or more of our day’s appointments were booked overnight by patients using the portal. Our goal to be the most convenient choice of excellent acute medical care for the ACU community.”