Students Sue Bryn Mawr College for ‘Inadequate’ Gluten-Free Options, Virtual Class Access
“multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act”
I believe these are what we call ‘first world problems.’
The College Fix reports:
Bryn Mawr College sued for ‘inadequate’ gluten-free options, virtual class access
The Philadelphia-adjacent Bryn Mawr College is the target of a lawsuit by a half dozen current and former students, who allege “multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act” by the school.
The suit claims the school “particularly” comes up short regarding students with “invisible” disabilities, which The Philadelphia Inquirer describes as “conditions and diseases that can’t be seen externally.”
The plaintiffs allege Bryn Mawr did not provide “adequate” gluten-free meal selections, virtual access to classes, and extra time on tests for students who needed it.
Students with “ADHD, autism, mental-health challenges, and mobility issues” also allege the school “refused” to accommodate their specific needs.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Eden Quainton said Bryn Mawr is “understaffed and operates without oversight” even though it has a $1.1 billion endowment and took in $50 million in “investment income” in 2024.
The suit notes Bryn Mawr’s chief investment officer makes over $1 million per year, which is “four times the budget of the entire Access Services Department.”
Bryn Mawr Chief Communications Officer Samara Sit said regarding of suit that the school “is committed to the full participation of all people in all aspects of campus life. We support eligible students, faculty, staff, and visitors with disabilities through a wide range of accommodations.”
One student involved in the lawsuit who has gluten sensitivity said she had “problems obtaining food she could safely eat” beginning on day one — when she wasn’t allowed into a “gluten-free [dining] room”:
It took the college more than three weeks to grant her access, only for the student to learn that there was no hot food offered there at all.
[The student] ate food that was labeled gluten-free from the main food area, frequently vomiting after meals because of cross contamination. She became sick and failed two classes in her first semester, eventually taking medical leave.
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Comments
I question just how many people really do have cilliac (sp?) disease. Just like with the peanut allergy, I can’t remember anybody having these problems 40 or 50 years ago. What changed? I’m not discounting the fact that for some people these are problems. I just wonder: what really has happened?
Part of the answer is “they died”. You didn’t know them because they were already dead by the time you would have met them. Or in some cases you may have actually known them, but never knew what they died of.
Celiac disease was first identified in the aftermath of WW2. Before that it was merely known as “that mysterious illness that makes children waste away and eventually die, just like dozens of other mysterious illnesses that we can’t identify and have no idea how to treat”. It was only when a Dutch sanatorium for such children couldn’t get bread and had to switch to rice, and all the kids got mysteriously better, and then when the war was over and the bread supply was restored they all got sick again, that the doctors realized what the disease was, and switched them back to rice.
Thank you, and, not my downtick.
The “extra time on tests” scam has been around for a long time. Back in the 1970’s, when I was a premed adviser at Harvard, we had large numbers of students demanding extra time on exams. We found that certain prep schools were advising all their premed students to go to certain psychologists, who would give them letters saying they needed extra time on exams, and then the college had to give it to them. ADA and all that.
And when you wrote their recommendation for medical school, you weren’t allowed to mention that they had gotten extra time on exams. (ADA and all that.) Considering how competitive medical school admissions were at the time, this scam could give a cunning student a leg up on getting admitted.
The ADA didn’t exist until 1990.
It was one of the reasons I didn’t vote for Bob Dole. I used to say I couldn’t support him because of ADA and ADM. There may have been a third ADx that I can’t remember.
Also I honestly couldn’t see the difference between him and Clinton.
It was possibly the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, section 504, which is still around but was in some was a precursor to the ADA. Depending on the state where the school was located, it could also have been a state law.
Ugh. Wjo wants to run a college these day. I mean seriously. It’s like running a nursery school except the kids aren;t as cute.
I should add they are also worse behaved.
“The plaintiffs allege Bryn Mawr did not provide “adequate” gluten-free meal selections”
Pack a damn bag, snowflakes.
W’re tired of everybody else paying extra for YOUR problems that YOU could easily address.
At the same time, if what she’s paying for includes meals then they need to provide meals that she can actually eat, or else charge her a lot less.
She doesn’t say that she tried to avoid buying the meal plan. I gather that this is not the issue. If she wanted to eat in the “gluten free room” that actually didn’t serve any food (huh?), apparently she wasn’t on the regular dining plan, which usually has specific and well known places where it can be used.
Th peanut allergy people are what drive me nuts. The gluten-free people can solve their problem without affecting anyone else. The peanut people demand everyone else in the world cater to their liability. Maybe if I had it I’d feel differently but I don’t. I have other issues though which force me to adapt to everyone else, not the other way around.
I feel sorry for people with peanut allergy. I really do. Their allergic reaction is not a joke and not their choice. But I am not sure any law obligates a school to provide gluten-free food or peanut-free food.
I understand your point but you cant make the world revolve around you.
It sounds in this case that the school promised gluten free food but it wasn;t immediately available to her and when it was it wasn’t satisfactory.
It’s really disturbing that the Bryn Mawr campus locks its students inside, or else there’s no gluten free food available for miles around the campus. Otherwise this poor student would have no grounds to sue the college over her dietary demands.
Why doesn’t she just not buy the meal plan and eat off campus?
I’m sure in the very liberal, heart of the main line, Bryn Mawr, there’s plenty of gluten free options to eat within a minute walk of the campus. Not to mention most people going to school there are super wealthy with plenty of options for food.