Posted by It’s the end of summer- in a few weeks, I will be back on campus, teaching. Every college class, of course, starts with handing out the syllabus, explaining course policies, explaining what we’ll do in class. There is also always an accommodation section, and it is usually a pre-written paragraph from the university that you get to paste into the syllabus. Accommodations can be anything from allowing for more time on exams, how to make up for absences, allowing for recording or other note-taking devices- you get the gist.
To be sure, the onus is on the student- they need to do one more thing to receive these accommodations, and in many large universities, the accommodations offices are understaffed, and such students fall through the cracks. You can also argue that it is a form of additionally singleing out students who need accommodations as “different” instead of coming up with a more just system of grading and evaluating student work. And, you’d be right. Inclusionis more than adding a ramshackle ramp to a building. We should all be striving for making our education system more accessible and more just, but in the meantime, accommodations are what we need to use.
A few years ago, I started pointing out the accommodation section in the syllabus. I usually tell students something along the lines of “I want you to know about these accommodations, and if you need them, use them. I myself have Crohn’s Disease, and I would have not made it through college and grad school without Professors accommodating me, giving me extensions on assignments and more. And I also don’t want you to think that this is some grand gesture on our part, that we do this out of the goodness of our hearts, but because it is your RIGHT. I will obviously do everything to support your learning journey, but nobody has to feel grateful for accommodations.”
Since I work in a small institution, I have had the same students take several classes with me, and by now, I tell them, “you’ve heard me say this before, and I will say it again….”. They smile and listen, they are polite young people, and in some ways, I think Gen Z has a lot more compassion and understanding for difference. Saying this, pointing out my own diagnosis, and showing vulnerability is not easy, even though, yes, I have a blog dedicated to Crohn’s and life with it.
I don’t remember why I started pointing out the accommodation para in the syllabus, I just felt it was important. No grand scheme behind this. And I was nervous, I wildly gestured left and right with my hands, hoping nobody would see them shake (teaching tip: keep moving if you’re nervous, never freeze). And then one day, a student approached me, and said “Professor, I have Crohn’s Disease as well, you’re the first person I know who has the disease.” They later told me that seeing me go about my day had given them hope. Another student emailed me years after they were in my class. They had been diagnosed with a different auto-immune disease, and us professors had been asked whether we’d be comfortable giving an injection in an emergency. I apparently had told them, “Oh, I have been giving myself Humira and Cimzia injections for the better of four years, I’ll have that needle in you before you know it” (I don’t quite remember what I said, but it sounds cocky enough to be from me!). But, they said that they felt 2% less overwhelmed and scared. I’ll take that.
The Hidden Curriculum
Institutions of higher learning, or any education institutions run on something called a “hidden curriculum”- norms, expectations, habits that are unwritten, unsaid, and seemingly normal, if you come from, say a family of education and privilege. If you have had an auto-immune disease for a long time, you’ve also learned that until you ask for what you need, and insist on it, you will not get it. I am lucky to come from a family where education was important, and from parents and grandparents, who are, say, suspicious of random authority (my grandfather had the occasional anarchist tendency). And because of having had Crohn’s for a while, I knew if I wanted to finish that paper, I’d have to ask for an extension.
Not everyone has that. Syllabi are supposed to level the playing field, spell out these hidden expectations, but, more often than not, they obfuscate things. I try to do my small part to make students aware of their rights and help them, because, you know, it’s my job. So anyone reading this, who hasn’t been told: Accommodations are your right.
The Morbus Crohnicles 