St. Thomas student Katherine Cleven says she’s not receiving enough support from the university’s accessibility services.
Cleven suffers from pituitary Cushing’s disease and focal segmental glomerulsclerosis (FSGS). The former is a tumour at the base of the brain that causes an excess of the hormone cortisol, while FSGS causes kidney failure. The two are related as the kidneys release cortisol. On top of that, Cleven also suffers from four learning disabilities.
Cleven said one of her professors did not accept her doctor notes excusing her from class while she prepared for brain surgery to remove her tumour. This caused her to fail the class and not get the credits she needs to get her anthropology major and graduate.
“I was essentially told [by the professor] I was lying, I wasn’t actually sick,” said Cleven.
Cleven describes her life before undergoing surgery as being on death’s door.
“My situation had become so severe that my life expectancy had severely decreased. They were giving me two-to-three years maximum,” Cleven said.
A month later, Cleven underwent the surgery she says has drastically improved her life, though she still doesn’t know what her life expectancy is.
“Just because I’ve had the brain surgery doesn’t mean I don’t have the disease. It has had lasting effects.”
Cleven said anxiety about school was the last thing she needed while dealing with her surgery.
Cleven has to have regular appointments with her doctors, and said the school has lost some of those doctor notes. She has had to instruct her doctors to send the university multiple notes about the appointments and attest to the severity of her diseases and her need to be exempt from class.
Cleven also says no accommodations were set up by the accessibility services leading to her surgery. As well, the school was unaware that she had had her surgery and had no plan in place although she was returning in a week. She says accessibility services had not even spoke to her professors telling them she was undergoing surgery.
Part of the reason Cleven feels she has run into these problems is because she looks healthy.
“What does a sick person look like?” Cleven asks. “There are still days I can’t get out of bed or need to sleep 16 hours a day.”
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Despite Cleven talking to The Aquinian about her health issues, Student Services is bound by confidentiality. The school was unable to discuss Cleven’s case, but could discuss service requests in general.
Shannon Clarke, the director of Student Services and Residence Life, said the decision to accommodate students is decided case-by-case. There are limits to how much the university can accommodate people, she said.
“All students do still need to meet the academic requirements of their classes,” said Clarke. “Students, even if they have accommodations, still need to display the same level of learning as other students.”
Clarke said there are special circumstances where a student can receive an incomplete on a class, which would allow them to complete the academic requirements, but the policy leaves that to the professor’s digression.
“If a student wants to appeal a grade, they can do so directly to their instructor or, eventually, the appeal will go up through the chair of the department and then the Academic Appeal and Grievances Committee and that will be reviewed by a committee of folks that will look at the whole case and make decisions.”
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Cleven says she’s not ashamed of talking about her medical conditions. She doesn’t know why her claims to illnesses were questioned and she doesn’t know why she has not received the support she needs, but she says she has to move forward. She wants to be a doctor one day.
“Neither of [the diseases] are curable. I have to deal with it. Take it as it comes,” Cleven said. “It’s affected me mentally. I’ve cried way too much.”
