A Cancer On The Faculty

I am currently attending university. Sadly, I am also suffering from ovarian cancer. I have been on chemotherapy over the last semester, and have always missed every other Wednesday of class, as that is my treatment day. My last tutor was always very considerate about this, and (in private) made my lecturers aware of the situation. She retired at the end of last semester, and I was allocated another tutor. He was made fully aware of my situation, and I had a sit-down with him before the semester began. He, however, wasn’t the most considerate, and repeatedly lambasted me every Wednesday class I do not attend. He ignored my emails reiterating the reason, and became more and more irate.

This was a treatment day, and I was sitting in the hospital being fed poison, when an email popped up on my phone from said tutor. The mailing list included all of the department faculty, including the dean. It said that I had missed my morning lecture “yet again” and that he would be seeking my removal from the course if “I [could not] find an adequate and verifiable reason for my failing attendance.” He requested a meeting with me and the dean on my next treatment day, stressing that if I failed to attend, the dean would have no other choice but to remove me. As I was reading the email, another one came through from the dean confirming everything that was said (the dean was not made aware of my treatments).

I was feeling pretty crap at this point, and I lost my patience. I saw there were other emails coming in from my lecturers, but I decided to “reply all” to the first email. I got my nurse to take a picture of me and I sent it through along with, “IS THIS A GOOD ENOUGH REASON?”

All the email chatter stopped, and I got on my with miserable day, making sure that I would be seeing my tutor the next day. When I came in, several of my lecturers found me and gave me a big hug before following me to my tutor’s office. It was locked, but I saw him inside. I knocked, but the second he turned around and noticed me, he blushed and turned back to his desk, ignoring me. We went to the dean, but she refused to see me.

Nothing much has happened since. I have a tutor who ignores me, but now isn’t doing anything else to make my life more difficult. One of my lecturers has offered to be my tutor until everything is sorted out. Thankfully, my treatment is going better than expected. Next year though, my tutor is expected to review and grade my final dissertation. I just hope everything will be sorted out by then.