General News Yale student threatened suspension for being too skinny

Yale University threatened to suspend student for being too skinny  - NY Daily News

This is just stupid. This girl looks healthy too. Just to avoid suspension, she had to go on a eating binge on junk food and only gained two pounds. The school rather have an unhealthy student with high cholesterol and blood pressure than to have just a simple, normal student. Even if she's considered underweight, all that matters is that she's healthy. I feel bad for this girl.

Just so you guys know, a lot of Asians have such fast metabolism after having inherited a small, skinny frame that is prevalent in most Asians. Genetics make it hard to gain weight for these people. The genetics didn't get passed down to me, but it did for my sister and she has the same frame as this Yale student.

 

This sounds like something that came from a place of concern originally and escalated to unnecessary heights. Universities have started being hit hard legally as a result of the "starving" student stereotype. This is why standard meal plans have become a requirement for students that live on campus at a growing number of campuses. A staff member on campus probably voiced some concerns and after not noticing a changes the legal team of the university jumped in.

 

This woman's body type basically looks like a shorter version of mine.

I'm about 1/3 Native American, and some Native Americans have a high metabolism too.

I'm 5'8". I currently weigh 120lb, and the most I've ever weighed was 126lb. I'd probably weigh around 110-115lb if I didn't have such a crappy diet.

This is stupid. I hope I don't have to deal with this when I get into college.

 

Yale was going to kick this student out of college for being too skinny? She had to binge on ice cream and junk food in order to gain 2 pounds and be allowed to remain at Yale? Seriously?

I wonder if they kick overweight students out of college unless they lose weight. Somehow I highly doubt it.

With most of America overweight, colleges would have to dump significant numbers of their student body if they persecuted fat people the way they do skinny people.

But it's considered "okay" to make fun of skinny people, accuse of them being anorexic and having an eating disorder, tell us to "go eat a hamburger". I remember going to the doctor's for a check-up, and after I was weighed, the borderline-obese nurse told me I'm underweight and started interrogating me about my eating habits as if I were some anorexic bulimic. I'm constantly called "anorexic" and asked if I "purge" after eating. I'm skinny because of genetics and my metabolism, not because I'm anorexic or have anything wrong with me. And I like being skinny, and I'm attracted to guys who are skinny, I don't care if our BMIs are slightly below their "normal" range.

This girl should not have been forced to gain 2 lbs just to remain at the university, that is insanity. Some people are naturally skinny, just deal with it, sheesh.

 

It's common for the health requirements to be based of average white needs, despite ethnic differences in medical situations. Although I'm not sure if active racism was involved, it's likely that the university refused to take into account the different dietary/weight requirements she has.

Even if it weren't that, it's still ridiculous to suspend students for potential eating disorders. That's not helping anyone. And more to the point, the most prevalent eating disorders are bulimia and binge-eating disorder (and whatever EDNOSs there are), which almost always make someone weigh more than average.

 

I think the problem here is that, while it isn't an eating disorder this time, it very often is, and the university could be held liable if it was, which left them with the impression that they had to act if they wanted to avoid an opening for a lawsuit. I think that's a bullshit situation for everybody involved, and I think we assign liability far too liberally, in turn provoking stuff like this as people try to close up any possible avenue for a suit.

Oh, wait. They are using BMI? How many fucking times does that system have to get discredited before people stop using it?

 

If the university "could be held liable" for not taking action to "help" a student they think might have an eating disorder (based only on stupid stereotypes), why aren't they worried about being held liable for failing to react the same way for all their students at risk of diabetes and heart disease because of their extra pounds?

 

I understand why a university would be that concerned for the health of it's students. I've been in treatment (am recovered) from bulimia with restrictive tendencies, and when I got help I was forced into it because I didn't think anything was wrong. That could be why the university had such a hard time believing she wasn't sick when she said, because most people who struggle say "there's nothing wrong, I'm eating fine and not too small" because you honestly don't believe it.
The mistakes I think the university made were 1) probably relying solely on the BMI chart for information, even though it's not alwasy accurate and doesn't account for many factors.
2) not (that it tells us) having a psychiatric evaluation and dietitian appointment done as one of the initial steps.

Definitely could have been handled less "threateningly" but I do understand why the university worried.

---------- Post added 20th Apr 2014 at 09:35 AM ----------

I like your point and I think the answer is stupid. I go to a Canadian university and the rules here are that if the illness is non-life threatening (diabetes because there's insulin and dietitians, etc) then it's not the schools liability to get involved past initially getting a doctors appointment. If the illness is life-threatening like an eating disorder, the university is liable to do everything they can to save the person or help them recover primarily.
In ways it's kind of a stupid rule, but it's based off of the need for interventions that addictions (eating disorders) are usually associated with

 

I thought Universities were for open-minded smart individuals... no?

 

They aren't liable for overweight people, only underweight people (and they shouldn't be liable there).

 

She wasn't supposed to gain two pounds. She tried to gain more, but for an average person, eating that much makes you gain five pounds or more without activity.

 

Wow...that's body policing.

 

being Asian, when I saw this I was just mad. One is that genetics and diet affects metabolism and weight gain. I mean, typical Asian home meals (not holiday meals) don't include a lot of processing chemicals.

Also, BMI. But why? D:

 

There are so many things wrong with this my brain exploded. I can't even