and the saga continues...

so yesterday I had my Health Disparities class and, after jumping through email and phone hoops to try to get appropriate permissions from FIVE DIFFERENT OFFICES (meaning at least probably 7 or 8 individuals other than me, possibly more).... I wound up with having access to unlock the door between the handicapped parking spot and the elevator, but they turned off my access to the permit lot in the process so I wound up having to park in the visitor's lot (and pay for parking in a different area of the lot after already paying for parking in the permit area - not a happy gimpmama I assure you). Made a video of myself trying to use my parking access card and emailed access services (along with a scan of my receipt for parking in the visitor lot) as soon as I got home, along with a detailed list of the places I explicitly require access this semester to get to the classes I'm registered and effing paying through the nose for (your intrepid Gimp Mama is not at a public university, she is at a private one where graduate tuition is a bit over $1100 per credit hour).  I am still highly irritated that my access to full enjoyment of the campus to as near the same extent as able-bodied students is unnecessarily restricted by locked doors between ramps and elevators throughout the campus. Working on it.

Also finally got replies from the Ass. Dean (yes I'm liking that abbreviation particularly at this point).  She is insisting she needs to meet with me before my Thursday morning class, and was insisting on meeting with me one-to-one still since the Dean couldn't make himself available for this... so she suggested another one of her colleages (another Assistant Dean in the program, this one Academic Affairs - which I had to do a Google site search to find out as I don't know her any better than the first Ass. Dean). Hell to the NO I am not gonna be tag teamed by colleagues with one claiming to be my "advocate" - have had exactly that situation happen in the past in my own church and that issue nearly drove a rift through some very important players in the church community. Not doing that with a program I'm paying for. I offered to bring a lawyer instead. THAT finally got the actual Dean to respond,  after the Ass. Dean went and replied with CCs to a bunch MORE people I don't know in the university... all over a rather sensitive issue (breastfeeding) that will actually only BE an issue for ONE SEMESTER! Once my son is on solid foods as well as breastfeeding (around 6 months, which he turns right about a week before the end of this semester, giving me winter break to get him eating some solids and stretching out his daytime significantly more), I will be able to be away from him for the time required for me to attend a class between his feedings. Plus, being a gimp mama, I don't exactly WANT to try to bring a mobile baby to class with me (I can't wear him in a backpack like my lawyer friend did with son who attended last year of law school with parent).

I have been searching the university's website trying to find this elusive policy she refers to but never directly cites and I *think* I may have located what she *thinks* is this policy. Last fall, the university came up with this new policy/benefit/whatever you want to call it that hooks up community members (looks primarily geared toward employees but I think it's also available to students from what I've been reading) with temporary nannies to care for children on an irregular basis.

I suspect she's reading that "policy" as "we have this in place, so don't bring that brat to class"... kinda like persons in authority in public spaces that have mother's rooms (like at the mall) - "we have this in place, so don't breastfeed that baby out here".

Yeah, that's not how it works. Those are options not policies.  And sometimes, someday I may take that option. But it does nothing to solve the problem right now of my baby not being able to be separated from me for the length of the class and basically according to many international actual policies, what she's doing/suggesting may technically amount to a human rights violation. And there are a WHOLE lot of policies (as I cited in my first email to her, appearing in the first blog post here) at the international, federal, and state level that say yes, baby needs and gets full access to mama's milk for six months. And I'm pretty sure those policies supersede any silly little private university policy, right?

I'm multitasking like crazy here - trying to grab all the articles from the Journal of Breastfeeding Medicine I may need for a research proposal assignment for my Health Disparities class (we get to pick our own topic ;) ). The Journal was made available for free for the month of August and I'm not positive I grabbed everything I might need/want from it yet.  Plus baby and toddler attention, plus my 1st grader should be home any minute now, plus trying to get a couple gifts finished for friends (one who is expecting a baby within the next 2 weeks and the other whose daughter is getting dedicated with my son this Sunday at church). Will post redacted copies of emails sometime in the near future.

Planning to write "civil disobedience can look like" across the part of the baby's carrier that faces outward when I take him to class again on Thursday. Because he IS coming with me.  As far as I can figure, there's nothing realistic that the Ass. Dean can do to stop me, and the far-fetched things she could try would definitely get some bigger players attention in the matter.