Name: Deirdre Sheridan
Class Year: Senior, 2017
Hometown: Fanwood, NJ
Major/Minor: English/Art History
Campus activities: Alpha Sigma Tau, Wind Ensemble
Hey Deirdre, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today! Over the past few weeks, you’ve been one of the most vocal supporters and advocates for the reformation of Peirce’s allergy accommodations. Could you tell me little more about this issue?
Sure! I was diagnosed with a severe dairy allergy when I was two years old. I carry an EpiPen and require hospitalization if I eat even a small amount of dairy. Eating out with a food allergy can be a challenge, but it’s often manageable. When I was growing up my family and I assumed I’d have to be a commuter student just to eat safely in college, but I didn’t want my allergy to dictate where I was able to get my education. Food allergies became a recognized disability under ADA in 2008, and colleges are now obligated to accommodate all students with diagnosed allergies.
While I’ve loved my Kenyon experience, eating here has often been difficult. I’ve had a lot of issues with cross-contamination and accidental exposure, as well as just not having a wide variety of available options. I had two severe reactions, requiring hospital trips, and countless milder ones, and I often found Peirce was not eager to remedy the issue. I’ve been in contact with a lot of students and alumni with allergies who have similar struggles. I’m nearing the end of my time at Kenyon and I really want other students with allergies to feel they can attend this amazing school and fully enjoy all aspects of life at Kenyon—including eating at Peirce.
I understand you’ve had several unfortunate experiences with allergy accommodation in Peirce. How did the staff handle these incidents?
As I mentioned above, I had two severe reactions in my first two years at Kenyon. One was due to cross-contamination at the salad bar, and another was due to me being served the wrong sauce at Fusion—I was given a “vegan pesto” that got mixed up with the regular pesto sauce. There were lots of other milder reactions and close calls in those first two years, often due to mislabeled food. My allergy was well-documented with both the Kenyon administration and the AVI staff, and I was always keeping in touch with AVI when I saw inaccurate labels, spills, and other issues.
I often found that AVI did not provide adequate allergy training for their staff, and while the chefs could provide answers about ingredients, they were often inaccessible, especially during busy periods at Peirce. Sometimes there were days when there just weren’t any safe dishes for me to eat, so I’d be stuck eating salads for every meal. Not that there’s anything wrong with salads, but I really felt that AVI just wasn’t doing enough to make students with allergies feel they were being listened to. Kenyon administrators were sometimes understanding, but sometimes I was met with responses that I was expecting too much and needed to “be realistic” about allergy accommodations. Oftentimes AVI administrators would tell me that training their staff would be difficult because their staff were “not as educated” as Kenyon students. Needless to say, Peirce had become a serious source of stress for me.
You eventually managed to get off the meal plan at Kenyon and cooked your own meals at home. Do you advocate for that choice as an option for other students with dietary restrictions?
While this was a good choice for me this year, I do not advocate this as a default response for Kenyon. I was seriously struggling with AVI accommodations in the beginning of the year, and because I live in an apartment and have a car on campus this year, going off the meal plan emerged as a good option. I think Kenyon should offer more flexibility in the meal plan for those who want it, but there should be more improvements made for allergy accommodations in Peirce. While what I’m doing is technically “reasonable accommodations” under ADA, when there’s only one dining hall on campus, it would be hard for a younger student to fully integrate into Kenyon life if they were kept from Peirce. Having full control over what I’m eating is obviously keeping me safe, but it’s not easy feeling shut off from a major social outlet on campus.
Several other Kenyon students also have serious allergies and dietary needs. Recently, you sent out a survey requesting these students to speak up about their experiences and ideas to better the way AVI handles alternate food requests. What ideas did these students put forth to reform AVI’s allergy accommodations?
The survey was a really great tool because I think it made people feel that they weren’t alone. It also revealed that AVI has not been accommodating for a variety of dietary restrictions, not just allergies. Lots of students want to see better allergy training, labels that include all nutrition information (rather than just the most common allergens), and better availability of allergen-free options, like plain rice, gluten-free pasta, and a better variety of plant-based protein sources. Primarily, students want to feel their allergies and dietary restrictions are being taken seriously and to be treated with respect when they ask AVI staff for accommodations.
In your opinion, what issues does AVI really need to pinpoint and work on?
A long-term goal for me personally would be to get Kenyon certified by FARE, or Food Allergy Research and Education. They’re the most prominent food allergy advocacy group in the country, and in the past few years they’ve started a College Program in which schools can undergo their training program and be included in a list of allergy-friendly colleges on their website. Many of our overlap schools, such as Colby, Bates, and Williams, have already undergone training through this program. Having FARE certification would be an amazing selling point to prospies and really demonstrate that the school cares about creating a more accessible campus—something Kenyon administrators have always mentioned as an ongoing goal. I really want to see AVI listen to students’ concerns and understand that accommodating allergies is worth it. 1 in 13 Americans have some form of a food allergy—this is not an uncommon problem.
Coming into the Spring semester, do you have any meetings scheduled with AVI to work these issues out?
I definitely plan to host some in-person meetings of students with allergies and keep AVI informed of student concerns, especially as a new AVI resident director is coming in. But I am a second-semester senior, so I can’t address everything on my own. I am sure that an overwhelming majority of Kenyon students have at least one friend with an allergy or dietary restriction of some kind. I encourage all students to speak up when they feel AVI is not doing enough—students with food allergies deserve more than just your sympathy. I certainly hope that AVI is prepared to address this issue and I look forward to seeing how they improve in the spring semester.
Thank you for your time, Deirdre! We hope your plans to help students with allergies at Kenyon work out. If you’re interested in signing Deirdre’s petition, please click here. If you would like to get in contact with Deirdre about allergy accommodations at Kenyon, please e-mail her at sheridand@kenyon.edu.
Image credits: Deirdre Sheridan