The Badger Herald: News: Struggling with the uncontrollable

News

Struggling with the uncontrollable

BEN CLASSON/Herald photo

Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.

Also by Bridget Roby:

Riding out the storm (April 10, 2008)
Break in the action (March 13, 2008)
No business like snow business (February 21, 2008)
12-Story Makeover (January 31, 2008)
Fumbling for a solution to high textbook prices (January 21, 2008)

Friday, October 5, 2007 12:00 a.m.

9 Vote 0 Votes

University of Wisconsin students can be in wheelchairs, be blind or be deaf.

But when a student cannot attend class because she is repeatedly hospitalized due to a genetic mutation, one student believes the line between what qualifies someone as a UW student begins to blur.

This issue haunted former UW student Jamie Weffenstette throughout her four attempted semesters at the university. Weffenstette was diagnosed with a severe case of cystic fibrosis when she was two months old and has been in and out of the hospital ever since.

Cystic fibrosis is an “inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States,” according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

After arriving on campus in the fall of 2004 to begin her freshman year, Weffenstette quickly realized being a UW student with cystic fibrosis would be harder than she thought.

"I dropped every single semester except the first one because I would get sick and no one would do anything," Weffenstette told The Badger Herald. "I had to drop out of school completely because they weren't willing to help me. … I had no choice."

According to Weffenstette, each new semester she would start out hopeful, yet each semester she would get so sick that she would have to be hospitalized, often for weeks at a time. She eventually had to drop her classes, she said, because she would miss labs and her teachers would not let her make them up.

Although she began her college career as a chemical engineering major, Weffenstette reluctantly switched to the Spanish department after her second failed semester at UW in hopes that without labs she would be able to complete a semester. In addition, she also took a lighter course load.

Despite her attempts, however, Weffenstette found no better luck with her new major.

"Basically, it was a nightmare," she said of her years at UW.

Although she had a letter from UW's McBurney Disability Resource Center explaining her condition, Weffenstette said her teachers were rarely willing to accommodate her when she was in the hospital.

"I think the problem at UW is none of the professors have ever even heard of what CF is," Weffenstette said. "They just don't understand how sick I am."

Weffenstettte explained her daily routine of consuming about 50 pills and completing about 90 minutes of physical treatments. Yet despite these precautions, Weffenstette eventually found herself in the hospital each semester.

When she attempted to address her concerns with one of the heads of the College of Letters and Sciences, Weffenstette recalled the teacher telling her, "If you can't go to class, you can't be a UW student."

According to Cathy Trueba, the director of the McBurney Center, accommodating students with cystic fibrosis can be complicated.

"This is a campus where attendance is important," Trueba said. "When it gets at what is at the core of being a student, when it's about ‘I can't get there' as opposed to ‘I can't do it,' it's a much more difficult situation."

Trueba said the center has made various accommodations for students with cystic fibrosis, as the disease affects every individual differently. Some adjustments have included a reduced course load, finding accessible travel or early registration to help them select ideal class times, as cystic fibrosis often affects the lungs and mobility can be an issue if the student cannot get from class to class quickly.

"We don't have a cookie cutter approach that if you have X, you get Y," Trueba said. "We've had some students that need very little accommodation and others who've potentially been much more compromised by it."

UW senior Jamie Wentworth, for example, who was not diagnosed with cystic fibrosis until she was a teenager, has only been hospitalized once during her time as a student.

"The biggest issue I have is walking up Bascom Hill in the winter," Wentworth said.

Nonetheless, Wentworth, like Weffenstette, sought support from the McBurney Center.

Trueba said students with cystic fibrosis generally receive a letter from the center to give to their professors, as both Weffenstette and Wentworth did, explaining the student has a disease with fluctuating symptoms.

"We are asking [them] to look at whether there are situations where they have flexibility," Trueba said. "We can't tell a professor, ‘You need to set up a lab a week later because a student missed it because of a disability.' That's an unreasonable request."

According to Weffenstette, however, any flexibility is hard to find at UW.

"They have really good services for if you're deaf or blind or in a wheelchair, but those people don't get sick in the middle of a semester and miss two weeks of class," she said.

After her fourth failed semester at UW in 2006, Weffenstette finally gave up hope of graduating with a degree from UW. She is currently taking a semester off and working with Edgewood College to finalize plans for attending classes there in the spring.

"They're willing to help me get my degree," Weffenstette said.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, this article should have cited Carla Wefefnstette as a source, not Jamie Weffenstette. We regret the error.

9 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 1:05 AM | Reply
IP hash: fa4f1bf7

This deserves more than friday coverage.

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 12:24 PM | Reply
IP hash: c12ac9f8

My friend also had cystic fibrosis when we came here as freshmen several years ago. He also had the same problem - he would repeatedly be hospitalized and not allowed to make up classes, and eventually he had to drop out. He died without getting a degree from UW. I think it’s horrible.

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 12:40 PM | Reply
IP hash: 4c73741f

Way to get CARLA Weffenstette’s name completely wrong.

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 3:39 PM | Reply
IP hash: 5bc4031d

Is it just me, or did they put the new McBurney center at the bottom of a flight of stairs so they could build a cafeteria for Grainger?

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 4:08 PM | Reply
IP hash: 719e83ab

Yes, it is CARLA Weffenstette. I know both Carla and Jamie, and believe this should have more coverage.

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 6:01 PM | Reply
IP hash: 68b4b7b4

Meh, I am in a dif department and have a disability as well and have had quite good communication between professors and McBurney. I do see where it can be a huge pain in the ass and I hope these folks get justice but it is not universal.

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 11:11 PM | Reply
IP hash: f229ebdd

“The new portion of Grainger Hall will include additional graduate services, classrooms, a plenary room and career center.”

http://badgerherald.com/news/2005/09/08/graingerexpansionf.php

Hey 3:39, ever heard of that new-fangled google thang? Or are you an engish major with a rich daddy?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=McBurney+center+wisconsin

Anonymous | October 5, 2007 11:46 PM | Reply
IP hash: bf2286c9

It is Carla Weffenstette. I hope the Herald runs a correction on that. It was a big error. Also I think the McBurney Center tried to minimize the problem. The director never mentioned the hours she would spend on the phone arguing with Carla. I know. She would call me crying after trying to get a little help from the University. I know the last thing Carla ever wanted to do was drop out. UW was her dream.