Diapers, daycare and housing may be things usually far from the minds of the typical Hopkins student. Yet the fact is that students at Hopkins do get pregnant and subsequently face many difficulties and decisions. On Wednesday night the JHU Voice for Life, JHU students for Choice, and the HSA Programming Collaboration Committee sponsored a Pregnancy Resources Forum which brought together campus administrators and the student organizations Voice for Life and Students for Choice to discuss the resources available to pregnant students and student parents.
Sally Wynn from the pro-life organization Feminists for Life, and also a woman that had been a student parent herself, moderated the forum. It aimed to address questions such as "If I have a baby where am I going to live?", "Will I have to drop out of school?" and "how am I going to support my child?" according to Wynn. She also stressed that the forum was not meant to "be a debate about abortion or prevention" but it was rather meant to "communicate the existing services" that Hopkins has to offer.
Hopkins does have many available resources for pregnant and student parents. Dr.Alain Joffee, the Director of Student Health and Wellness, stressed that "pregnancy tests are confidential" and that "students are not charged for pregnancy tests" so they did not appear on the bill that goes home to students' parents.
The Student Health and Wellness Center is where most students find out that they are pregnant. Joffee said that, "when students are ready to talk we provide the appropriate referrals." He added that he had frequently made calls to parents. "Sometimes the news is better coming from me," he said.
Hopkins also tries to set up an emotional support system for pregnant students. Shelly Fickau, the Director of Residential Life spoke about the role of RA's in student housing. She said that "RA's are the first people students go to and they know what to do." The RA's are taught to be "objective about the decision" that students are making "and to get students to the resources they need." They even will go with students to the hospital and the student health and wellness center. Hopkins also provides leaves of absences for students and note taking services for pregnant students that cannot attend classes.
Wynn challenged the administration to provide more services, such as accessible diaper stations to students so that they would have a sanitary place to change their children's diapers, as well as possibly having a day care program available to students and professors alike.
She also encouraged the president of the Voice for Life, Michael Sciscenti and the president of Students for Choice, Himali Weerhandi to consider working together to produce a pamphlet or website devoted to educating Hopkins students on the resources available to them relating to pregnancy.
Sciscenti, who was largely responsible for organizing the forum says that he "wanted to bring people together from both sides of the issue to discuss the issue of pregnancy" and he feels the forum was constructive. He says that while the Voice for Life Organization and Students for Choice "are always fighting with each other, they both have women's interests at heart."
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