Pensacola Christian College loves to talk about its high standards and the way it strives for excellence. What they don’t highlight so much is that excellence is a blood sport that often puts students at risk. It seems that you can’t make an omelette without breaking some legs.
It was early in my Junior year when the girl who I would later marry collapsed in her dorm room in terrible pain, unable to even stand. Her roommates carried to bed, hopeful that she’d feel better in the morning. The next day they contacted the on-campus clinic and were informed that their only option was painful trek across campus to be seen by the nurse in order to get permission to stay in her room instead of attending classes. (It only takes missing six unauthorized classes to get expelled at that bastion of education so just staying in her room and hoping for the best wasn’t an option.)
Even though her roommates asked for help, explaining that Cassie was unable to sit up in the wheelchair the clinic told them to use all they were told is “That’s all we have. You’ll just have to manage.” A slow trip down to the lobby with her propped in the wheelchair revealed even more bad news: there was no wheelchair access to the dorm. The only option was a small wooden ramp still propped up for students who were moving in heavy luggage at the start of the semester that hadn’t yet been removed. As carefully as they could, they attempted to navigate down to the sidewalk but the chair slipped, dumping Cassie onto the ground. Students, these rules are here for your protection.
After several hours of waiting in the clinic under the ever-suspicious eyes of the staff who’s main job is apparently to discourage people from skipping class, an ambulance showed up to take her to the nearby hospital where she was misdiagnosed with a pinched nerve. A representative from the dean’s office went with her and talked to the doctors on her behalf without any kind of written HIPAA authorization. She was then summarily given pain killers and whisked back to campus to her fifth floor room in Dixon tower to recuperate.
The horror didn’t end there. One night during her convalescence there was a fire drill. Cassie was still on the 5th floor of the dorm, even though the Residence Manager and the Dean’s office knew that she could barely walk let alone descend and re-climb stairs. Her roommates were literally forced to carry her. Of course PCC isn’t known for really caring much about fire safety anyway. For years the rule has remained on the books that all female students must be in “proper” attire before they leave their rooms for a fire drill. If you happen to be sleeping in pajama pants, you must take the time to put on a skirt before you try to escape the flames. If you should perish then at least you’ll know you died for the cause of not tempting the fire fighters to lust after you.
Finally, after trying to tough it out and even trying to go back to class, my future wife had taken all she could bear. She told the dean’s office that she was leaving and they cut up her ID card, the final act of withdrawing from the college. However, since Pensacola airport is far from a major hub, her flight home was to leave at 7:00 a.m., meaning she would need to leave the college by 6:00, well before the gates opened. A good friend of ours petitioned the dean’s office to let him drive Cassie to the airport and help her with her bags. He was twenty-three years old and therefore was allowed to go off-campus with non-student girls — of which my wife was now one. The dean’s office refused his request to help.
Rather than risk the college’s precious testimony by having a Christian guy help his injured friend to the airport, Cassie was instead forced to take a cab driven by a total stranger who left her on the airport curb without a way to carry her luggage. The college must keep up its appearances no matter what the risk to you. You don’t matter. They do.
After a few weeks of being home my wife received a letter from the college. It should have been a note of apology or a letter expressing regret at how badly they had managed her entire situation. Instead it was a bill for the remaining weeks of the semester since she had crossed the six-week threshold by a few days. Apparently the only thing even more important than appearances at PCC is getting paid.
Keep the rules. Raise the standard. Strive for excellence. If you’re too broken in body or spirit to manage that then we simply don’t want your kind around here. How can a place that both holds and demonstrates such beliefs be Christian?
I think naive and trusting people can’t imagine that a fundy college would act like this. They talk so much of rules for the GOOD of the student, that we assume they actually care for the GOOD of the student. But so often that care ends when a student has needs that would complicate their rules and restrictions.
They so often claim that they act in loco parentis. Well, we make the immediate assumption that parents would protect and help us if we were sick. The fact that students have not been is shocking to those of us who naively believed that the institution cared.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give to them that ask him?
That’s the root of PCC’s problem, and its going to continue to be a problem no matter how many little changes they make to their rules or how many water slides they add.
The rules are NOT actually for the good of the students, not matter how many times and in how many ways they claim they are. The rules are for the good and convenience of the school, and is to insure that their agendas are carried out. It doesn’t really matter to them how many students are stepped on in the process, and stories like this prove it.
I would like to share a GOOD story from Party University in eastern NC:
My good friend and studio-mate was very sick and became very dehydrated. My flute professor picked her up from her dorm that Friday afternoon and took her to the ER – and stayed with her. Of course, they were in the ER for hours. There were other cases of such kindness by this flute professor. Of course anyone could have taken her – male or female of any age.
Oh, and no one ever tried to persuade me to become an atheist.
I once had a roommate in the PCC dorms that suddenly started going into convulsions, with difficulty breathing or speaking. Being ignorant about the PCC rules governing this type of situation, nor giving a **** about them anyway, I called 911 from my dorm phone (pre-cell phone era). I wasn’t going to watch my roommate die without doing my ***nest to stop it.
The medics (non-PCC) came, and it turned out to be a relatively benign medical emergency, and all was well.
Later, I was gently chided by the PCC authorities about the policy of calling their own medical responders, instead of the heathen outsiders. But if I had to do it again, I would do exactly the same thing.
I too was in a very similar situation, but my college was completely supportive. I woke up with some back pain that quickly degenerated into me barely being able to walk + high fever. I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve, which was partially correct, it’s just that the nerve was being pinched by a staph infection. I eventually ended up at a big research hospital where they took care of me (I’ve been in /chronic pain ever since).
My small, conservative school was totally lovely throughout this, and I finished that semester and graduated in four years. 🙂
@Kate, what a refreshing story! I am chronically ill and in pain too….so I feel for you….but am glad to hear about the support received. A Christian organization which acts in Christian charity …what a thought!
Honestly, this reminds me of my (completely non-fundy) christian college’s response to mental health and a few other things. Nothing about missing class, but we basically got told to keep our heads down and comply with whatever “treatment” the college wanted. Students who had any suicidal ideation or attempts in their past were typically kicked off campus (in a rural area where this necessitated purchasing a car and finding a much more expensive place to live). Students with “disruptive” health problems such as seizures were strongly encouraged to go somewhere else. The whole attitude was that we shouldn’t “disturb” other students with our problems.
Oh, and at my current secular school? We were told that any calls to the campus emergency responders automatically patch in with a 911 operator. So there’s no question of who you call – you get both on the line.
my version of a response to some of the inquires is sitting in Darrell’s “to edit for decipherablity” queue. 🙂 Anyone who is subject to my FB newsfeed is aware that my run on sentences can last for paragraphs. So I will let him make it more legible and then post it.
Now, you know those run-on sentences are because you’re not right with God…. 😉
Funny thing, a grammatical error was what first got me questioning KJV-onlyism.
“The wages of sin ARE death” is how it should read. Subject-verb agreement. And if God is so detailed about keeping every word pure and preserved, he should quite obviously be detailed about his grammar, too.
An interesting discussion on this point:
http://www.usingenglish.com/poll/464.html
I’m pretty sure “wages” was usually construed to be singular in Early Modern English, which is the language of the KJV, so there’s no problem here.
“Wages of sin” IS singular….it is not “Wages are”, it is “WAGES OF SIN” are…That is a singular phrase defining the total wages of sin, which is considered one, to be death. It is not each individual wage of sin is death. Wow, PCC REALLY didn’t teach you anything about grammar, OR biblical understanding!!!!! lol
Easy, now, big fella.
Grammar is not always cut and dry. There is room for questioning, and the rules have been known to change over time.
Not in fundystan they’re not!
I am still unsure of how the PCC chaperon got the medical staff to come to her with all the medical details. I didn’t receive any diagnosis at all. The Dr never came back to talk to me. Nothing. I was told later (by the PCC clinic) that they had found nothing so it must just be pinched nerve.
In reality they had found a bulging disc that obviously would have contributed. The hospital prescribed a painkiller and gave me crutches. (Really not sure how the crutches were supposed to help for a low back issue…maybe they had a medical equipment sales quota to meet.)
The ambulance had to bring me back to my dorm as upon discharge I still literally could not move anything except my arms and head of my own volition. At some point over the next few days I was brought down to the clinic (I assume still in the broken wheelchair…though that part is foggy). There the very wacky hippie doctor (that I think lasted there at the PCC clinic for only a few weeks) told me a little about how nerves pinched could wreak all sorts of havoc and needed to heal properly. She prescribed me enough Valium and narcotics to kill an elephant (thankfully) but from what she said I seriously think that she thought I would be resting not sent back to class and work at the DC on that merry cocktail.
Thanks to her humanity however, I actually remember those days in a surprisingly happy blur…I was high as a kite. But, even with the pain suppressed, my range of motion and mobility were very limited and sitting in a chair was still torture. The upside was that this cute guy I had a crush on went out of his way to speed walk to meet me between classes so he could get my book bag to my next class before being late for his own. Eventually though, I realized that it just wasn’t doable and i was going to have to sit the rest of the semester out. So i went home.
“…I was high as a kite..”
That must have been when Darrell proposed.
Actually, he never did propose. 😉
“the upside was that this cute guy…”
Are we talking about Darrell here?
“So I went home.”
“Oh you of little faith. Could you not watch and abide for yet one semester??”
I worked at the DC my 4 years there… I can’t believe that they required you to come to work! Well, actually I can believe it, but it’s absurd. I injured (not too seriously) my lower back one summer from working there. My job was lifting packages (sometimes weighing 20-25 lbs.) off the floor and correcting the contents. It wasn’t always hard, but speed was required in order not to get too behind. When I realized that I started avoiding normal activities because of my back, I told me supervisor that I needed a helper or something because of my back. He told me to lift with my legs. 😯
Outta curiosity…who are the adorable PCC students in all the photos being used? Darrell and Cassie? Their smiles look genuine to me. Happy to be together! But, is that the six inch rule being broken with the shoulders touching? Too cute!
Yeah, I’m thinking that now that their is photographic proof on the internet that Darrell is going to have to return his diploma.
*there
Sigh . . . GEORGE!!!
I figured when they found out about SFL, he was purged from all records and became non-existent in their eyes.
Yes, those are Darrell and Cassie. Aren’t they cute?
Cassie is gorgeous!
They’re both adorable!
Cassie looks stunning
Darell looks stunned
The photo is deceiving. My shoulder is actually behind his. No touching…..in this photo. 😉
And it was Sunday lunchtime, so right outside the commons door was a chaperoned area.
So, it’s only the appearance of evil, not the real thing!
That’s a nearly complete summary of Fundystan.
I had a similar experience at a Baptist college. I disclosed a known health issue at the beginning of each semester, and wore a medical alert necklace (but it couldn’t be seen by anyone, or demerits). My medical issue flared up while I was in the dorm, and I vomited and passed out. When I came to, I was in the hospital with the dean of men, one of my roommates, and my dorm supervisor. He was very gracious and when I was released to go home, I ended up sleeping on a couch in the lobby so people could easily check on me.
Then the other foot dropped. I was awakened by another dean who asked me if I knew why he was there. I responded “Because I got sick last night and went to the hospital?” Poor naive me. Apparently, he had grilled one of the medics (a church member) who had responded, and was told that they saw “empties” under my bed, and obviously I had drunk myself into unconsciousness. I was also informed that my parents were on the way to pick me up because I was being expelled.
We went into my room to take a look around, and the under side of my bed had luggage, shoes, and a 12 pack of Pepsi. I was forced to rip the box open so he could look inside, and open all the luggage. No bottles to be found, then he asked my roommates. “No, we haven’t seen anything.”
My parents were furious, I was furious, and the “apology” that we received was dinner with the dean of men as he told my parents what a great guy I am.
My time there was limited.
At another Baptist institution (not PCC, which strictly speaking isn’t actually Baptist), a young man was called into the dean’s office for looking at porn on the library computer and berated.
Later the IT department definitively proved that someone else had been using the computer at that time.
No apology made.
Fast forward a couple years. The dean quietly disappears from campus. His office is emptied out and the name tag removed. Word on the street was porn addiction.
If your nom de internet means what I think it means, I went to the Baptist college of which you speak. How interesting!
When I was there, the vice-president of the BSU was known for leaving very interesting messages regarding the men’s basketball team in the library restroom. There was also an intriguing drawing of two gentlemen in the projection room of the main chapel that I imagine has been painted over by now. It was there in 1981 and lasted at least until 1989, which I found very puzzling. Anybody who was ever in that room had to have seen it.
I have a good story from BJU related to health problems. I had a terrible time with bronchitis during my whole junior year, and in the first semester I was taking Teaching Match with Mrs. Elmer, and also Teaching Science, also with Mrs. Elmer, who was well-known for being a real stickler for how things ought to be. I went to the clinic and Dr. Saito gave me some really horrible medicine that made me even sicker, if possible. I had a horrible time sleeping at night and it even affected my memory, along with causing several other fun symptoms like extreme fatigue. One of the assignments for Mrs. Elmer called for us to go to the media center and learn how to use a bunch of different equipment like a movie projector (hah!) and mark off all the steps on a checksheet. I was just plain old too tired to go to the media center at night, and I let that assignment slide. Mrs. Elmer must have heard what was going on, because she pulled me aside after a class and told me to just go do it when I could and tell her when I had finished, and even though it was far past the deadline she gave me full credit.
That’s good to hear. I must admit to not really liking Mrs Elmer that much, but I sure like her a lot more now. But she was an excellent teacher. I cannot even recall the specifics, but I recall that the late Dr. Joss extended me several small kindnesses along the same lines when my health turned bad again during my sophomore (or was it junior) year, when I had him for Teaching Science.
Dear Christian College/University Employee reading these comments:
There is a common thread here for those willing to look past any assumed bitterness – people respond well to kindness and consideration. When people are ill (no matter if it’s a good cold or something much more serious), all it takes is a little compassion and understanding; how would you like to be treated when you’re sick? It’s not hard to be nice. It really isn’t. Read through the comments and you’ll see examples of authority figures being warm and human – and examples of authority figures being far less pleasant. Common sense, empathy and compassion – all are excellent traits to exercise in the execution of your duties. Will there be those who try to work the system? Probably; rather than close the net so tightly that the legitimately ill are harmed, maybe it’s better to give the benefit of the doubt and let God handle the cheats.
Think of the horror stories in these comments; in most cases, it would have taken very little to have changed the outcomes. As has been said elsewhere, the level of indifference and outright cruelty would seem to take much more intentional effort than just being a decent human being.
Just some thoughts, Christian College/University Employee. Think of how you would like the story of how you interacted with a vulnerable, sick college student to end up. Hero, or zero – the choice is yours. I know there is good in you – I can sense it. 😀
Like!
Jesus broke a lot of rules when it came to healing people. Made a lot of self-righteous people angry.
In addition to breaking the rules and protocol of the neo-Pharisees, Jesus wouldn’t even fit in at the typical Pharisee University (PU), due to His facial hair, his attire, sandals, lack of a crew cut, no tie, and no spit-shined shoes. But then, Jesus isn’t really welcome in some churches either, as evidenced by His knocking on the door in Rev. 3 desiring to get back in.
I was a physician at BJU from 2006 to 2011.
Without excusing myself in the least, I would like to echo some of the thoughts of some of the gracious people here who have spoken about how hard it can be in an environment like that to realize that you’re putting someone’s health at a lower level than The Rules, and well-meaning people can get caught up in it. Some of us haven’t gotten our heads screwed on as straight as we would like to think.
That being said, there is still no excuse.
My deepest apologies to anyone who I treated this way, or who even felt like I treated them this way. It was wrong. I regret any part I had in functioning at BJU. I wish I could go back in time and have a do-over on so many things.
I’m sorry.
Thank you for this, Tonya.
Wow. I’ve never met you, but I respect your courage to say that.
Thanks.
Thanks so very much.
I have great respect for you. We all made mistakes while in the IFB. Thank God for second chances.
When you get so used to The Authority always being right, it can be very easy for the questioning thoughts to never develop beyond a vague doubt. Maybe my growth is a little stunted, but I’ve had trouble with this into my 30s.
Reading sites like this and going through hell the last few years because of emotional and spiritual abuse my fiancee and I are dealing with, have really woken me up. I’m sad that it took this long, and took this much, to see through the lies.
There now remain these three: charity, truth, and authority. But the greatest of these is authority. 🙁
I hasten to say that not every doctor at the clinic was bad or unkind. I think most of them overprescribed antibiotics (and everything else) rather than apply time to each case. But Dr. Joy Angelea was terrific, and I considered her “my doctor” during her brief stay at the clinic. She was there only for about a year, I think, and then she went off to be a medical missionary (and still is), and I admire her a lot.
Does anybody from BJU remember the campaign started by Somebody Crispin (Carol or Karen or something like that), declaring natuarl medicine to be evil? Nutcase. Even while I was there a lot of faculty and staff were disgusted with her.
You mean Dr. Crispin, the head of the nursing division? Yes, I believe she did something like that. She also taught her students that things like anorexia were a result of demon possession. At least she did tell them that probably wasn’t the best answer for the boards…
Haha! You’ll get a kick outta this…I graduated with a BJU nursing degree while Crispin was head honcho. I don’t remember her saying anything about “natural” medicine, but I do recall her repeated rants about yoga being a new-age form of devil worship. That being said, she did some great lectures senior year about the legal side of nursing, and how politics and healthcare law affect everyone. Definitely seeing some of her predictions come true with the Affordable Care Act.
Oh George! You strike again!
“natural medicine”
I would like to offer a different story from Pensacola Christian College. The spring semester of my senior year (1996), I had suddenly lost all facial movement on the right side of my face. I knew that this was Bells Palsy setting in again.
I went to the campus clinic and was taken to the ER by one of my friends. I was admitted to the hospital for a couple days.
Dean Ohman, Dean of Men, came to visit at the hospital, called my parents on my behalf, and told them to get to Florida.
The school put my parents in campus housing while tests were run by a Neurologist and I was admitted back in to the campus clinic for a period of a month.
I was able to keep up with all of my classes in the clinic and able to complete my senior year.
PCC even let me out of my summer contract from traveling with an ensemble without penalty.
I know that for every bad story, there is a great story to tell.
Do I agree with every rule, every standard, etc. that the school has? Nope.
I just wanted to publicly let people know there is another side to the institution that is full of kindness, compassion, and grace.
“I know that for every bad story, there is a great story to tell.”
If you choose to believe that then I suppose there’s not much I can do. I’m not surprised to find out you were in ensemble. Enough said.
Oh, and they didn’t let you out of your ensemble contract from the goodness of their hearts. If your face was drooping due to Bell’s Palsy I can guarantee the didn’t want you any where near promotional work reseved for “beautiful people.”
“I know that for every bad story, there is a great story to tell.”
I’m going to agree with Tim… to a point. I wouldn’t say that for every bad story there is a great story, but even in the most fundy and crazy of fundy institutions, there are people who do have a good heart and kind spirit. I’m def no fan of my Fundy U (especially since tonight I was just denied a job because my degree is not accredited 👿 ) but even there, there were truly nice people. My bus captain treated us workers like family; some church members really did try to minister to us college kids who were far from home and often very lonely.
Obviously this site wouldn’t exist if our experiences were all ponies and rainbows, but I don’t think it’s wrong to point out when something good happened or when someone did go out of their way to be kind.
Fundamentalists see the world in black and white. Most often when people leave the movement called Fundamentalism they continue to see the world in black and white. People are either all the way bad or all the way good.
I think Hitler probably had some good qualities. There was something to him because the most advanced and one of the most sophisticated nations in the world at that time fell head over heels in love with him. But he oversaw a movement that became the very epitome of evil.
PCC is a few ranks lower on the evil scale than Hitler is. They’re lower down the scale than Hyles Anderson is. But evilness is a continuum that exists in more than one dimension. As far as misogny goes, I just don’t see as much of it at PCC as I’ve heard out of HAC. As far as being gracious or forgiving or compassionate? I don’t know, they might actually be worse than HAC. Probably not, but maybe.
I wouldn’t have cared if the guy came in here and told a nice story about PCC. Both Joel Mullenix and Jerry Goddard personally showed kindness to me. Barbi Baer especially was nice to me. I saw kindness and humility and compassion out of various people there at various times, but by no means would I say they were “FULL” of compassion, loving-kindness, or grace. They just weren’t. I can’t really think of any religious institution that I’m personally acquainted with that would score lower on that scale.
“I just wanted to publicly let people know there is another side to the institution that is full of kindness, compassion, and grace.”
Full of? Full of?
That’s like topping off a glass full of toxic sludge with an inch of water and saying “there’s another side to the glass that’s full of cool, refreshing, life-giving water.”
Hitler was an opportunist. His “good” qualities were mere deceptions as are fitting for the average sociopath. Germany was in dire straights financially due to post-WWI sanctions imposed by France and England. Hitler took advantage of this by schmoozing the people and appealing to their national pride (or lack thereof) and making promises. He won office via election. A wolf wears his sheep suit well. (Sound familiar…?) A tree is ultimately known by its fruit.
Tim,
I’m glad that you had a good experience when it came to your health; really, I am. This will sound cynical, but I can’t help but wonder how much of the good treatment you received was related, at least in part, to your being in ensemble. There was a definite whiff of favoritism when I was there; those involved in the singing groups seemed to get special treatment – or at least treatment that was a step or two above the general population.
Again, I’m glad to hear that your illness was dealt with compassionately.
For some reason I keep thinking of this:
“Marriage is a wonderful thing but you get a lot of little things with it. There’s love in it, there’s happiness in it; but there’s also sorrow, hatred, and madness in it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5-pp6p9pM
You had several advantages over Cassie–you are a man, you were an ensemble member (eg one of the privileged), and you had a visible and temporary ailment. All of these things put you in a place for the school to actually care about the way they treated you because it would far more front and center than their treatment of Cassie. Also, men almost invariably are treated better there than women.
Thank you for sharing Tim. I’m glad to know that PCC will treat *some* students like they *should* while treating others as sub-par. That’s really all you’ve done here – point out that PCC be given a cookie for treating its ensemble students like human beings.
🙄
I graduated from Eastern Nazarene College, a christian school in Massachusetts (just outside of Boston). I would have to say that I am very blessed to have gone there. I struggle with mental illness and the faculty and administration were so loving and caring throughout the whole process, even to the point where many took me into their homes while I healed. I am still friends with a few of them even though I graduated in 2010. Some Christian campuses really do display the love of God and ENC is one of them.
As a contrast to your contract story – when my wife became so ill her sophomore year (to the point where she could barely drag herself around campus), the school wouldn’t let her out of her work assistance job. She eventually had to withdraw, as she couldn’t physically keep it all spinning. That was her option. That was the school’s option for her. Work, or leave if you must.
That was for Tim’s story, of course.
When I was at Fundy U, we had a “harvest party” on October 31. The college took us on a skating activity and in the course of the evening, someone ran into me and I fell straight backwards onto the floor, receiving a concussion. I didn’t go to the hospital, but the chaperones were nice enough to take me back to school in a car. My roommates kept watch that night, waking me up occasionally, but the next morning they went to class. I was still sleeping when the dorm supervisor checked rooms and she gave me demerits for not emptying the trash. The real kicker was that the jobs had just changed that day, since it was November 1, but due to my “situation” the night before, I hadn’t seen the new room assignments.
This story and some of the ones in the comments just make me heartsick. I remember hearing other stories about similar circumstances while I was there, and those stories just played a part in my process of disloyalty to the institution and its ideals. Just the fact that for years you couldn’t be excused from class unless you went down to the GRAF and were checked in always struck me as ridiculous. Not only were the check-in times incompatible with getting in before a first hour class, they weren’t required to keep you in unless there was something really wrong or you had a fever. So then you were late to first hour and still sick. I understand they’ve changed the clinic/sick excuse system, but the underlying attitudes aren’t any different now than they were then, I’m sure.
My first night on campus, one of my roomies had a fit of some sort at 2 am. we called the floor leader who called Miss Moss. She was never taken to the doctor over it, or the time she tried throwing herself out of the 9th floor giffeth window. (This would have been very difficult as she was rather round and the window only opened about 3 inches.)
I can’t remember how many times I went to classes sick as a dog, doped up on Nyquil and cough drops just to make it through class and work. There was none of this current coddling where they let you stay in your room. If you were on death’s door, you could check into the health center and lie in a dark room for 24 hours. You couldn’t read or study – just lie there wishing for a quick death.
The girl that had the fits and tried throwing herself out a 3 inch space of window had a full scale nervous breakdown and was sent home.
She attempted suicide and they just kept her there instead of getting real professional to help?! I HOPE her parents found out and sued! 👿
Ick. Sorry to hear that Cassie went through all that. I had a ridiculous medical experience at PCC during the final weeks of my junior year. I had woken up with incredibly painful cramps, the kind that pretty much keep you from doing anything. Of course, the Graf Center wouldn’t let me check in because I had no “proof” of the cramps – I guess being doubled over with debilitating pain was not proof enough. My next class was one of my peer teaching classes, and that day I had to perform my peer teaching (40 percent of my grade.) If I missed class, not only would I be racking up some more unneeded demerits, but I would also fail that class. That would have been detrimental to my major. Since the Graf Center wouldn’t give me permission to miss class, I had to drag myself across campus to my class and beg my teacher to let me wait until the next day to do my peer teaching. As soon as he heard the word “cramps,” he quickly agreed to it. ( I still wonder if the not-so-great grade I got later was punishment for not doing it that day.) Anyway, it got worse. I called in sick to work (A Beka Book) and they were suspicious, since I wasn’t in the Graf Center. Apparently they sent someone to come check my room, and a roommate’s illegal music was discovered. I took the blame for the music and was promptly taken to the Dean of Women’s office to get yelled at. She D-Apl’d me, which meant that I lost my room “assistant prayer leader” status 🙄 and had to get moved to a different room for the remaining two weeks of the semester so I would no longer be a bad influence on my roommates. I had to call my parents to let them know I had a new phone number and of course they wanted to know why. It was degrading and humiliating, to say the least.
After that, I was suspicious if anyone said kind words or did kind things. I could not believe that an institution with the name “Christian” could not have compassion on someone in pain. 😕
“Proof”? 😯
How are you supposed to “prove” something hurts, and how much?
I also suffered from monthly cramps during my years as a student at BJU. Sometimes they were so excruciatingly painful they rendered me unable to function. Nevertheless, if they struck during class hours, I was required to stumble across campus to Barge, sit in one of the hard chairs lined up in the hallway with a bunch of other students (men and women) for up to an hour waiting to be “examined” by the stern-faced nurse whose mission was not to treat illness but to determine whether or not you were trying to fake symptoms in order to get out of class. Ugh. Even though this happened over 30 years ago, those humiliating memories are still fresh in my mind.
A gate? They’re locked in? Sounds wonderful.
I became very ill overnight at my alma mater (well known bastion of womens’ education and liberal feminism near Boston) just a few days before my graduation. After a concerned friend called campus po in a panic, the officer decided the ER was the best place and immediately drove me there. I was keep the next day and overnight. The following morning I was supposed to be at rehearsal for a solo performance at the graduation ceremonies. The administration became concerned when they couldn’t find me. I was still at the hospital looking for a ride back to campus. When the president heard, she immediately came and picked me up personally.
Darrell, others have said this, but I’m echoing: that’s a cute young couple. 😉 I’m sorry for the suffering of course.
Is it true that PCC teaches against fornication because it might lead to dancing?
It’s specifically against fornication standing up, as such an act looks suspiciously close to dancing. 😀
I believe Jesus got angry at this but sinned not. My righteous indignation meter just went off the charts. Well, at least the self-righteous really do have Hell to pay.
This site certainly haas all tthe info I needed about this subject and
didn’t know who to ask.
my blog; SBOBET