Yale University 'Sorry' For Threatening To Suspend Student Frances Chan For Being Too Skinny

[bethan_b_bad]

Yale University has admitted it "made a mistake" after accusing a student of having an eating disorder and warning if she didn't put on weight she'd be put on medical leave

Comments

[spyral_out]

"Yale Health's goals"? Since when do colleges have any damn say in that? I've never even heard of something that ridiculous. You're being paid to educate, not police weight.

[silver_apples]

So not only do they think they can determine if someone has an eating disorder based solely on that person's current weight, without even looking at medical history or checking for other causes of weight loss/difficulty gaining weight, but they think the best treatment is bullying, nagging, and threatening the patient into eating more? They may as well have said "we don't care about your mental health as long as you physically make our school look good."

[lied_ohne_worte]

Is it normal for US universities to have that much interest in students' health or private lives? Because apart from the obvious issues summed up in the tags, that whole scenario sounds like an incredible intrusion into privacy.

[wrestlingdog]

In my experience, no, but there are so many US universities that there are almost certainly exceptions. (I know that there are at least a couple super-conservative Christian colleges that get all up into their students' love/sex lives.)

[hey_spectrum]

No. They have no business investing this heavily in her personal life.

[frankiebeans]

I just had something similar happen at an overpriced private grad school. It really does happen.

[nesmith]

So women get pestered and berated and shamed if we're "too fat" and pestered and berated and shamed if we're "too thin." Jesus fucking Christ we can't win. Ever.

[grapesheezy]

You don't diagnose someone because they LOOK like they have an eating disorder. Obviously Yale needs to brush up on their psychology. I mean really is no one safe? This woman was forced to adopt unhealthy behaviors simply because the school deemed her underweight? Absolutely ridiculous. Also would it have been as big of a deal if it were a slightly underweight male??

[rayofblacklight]

+1