Yale Student Says University Threatened To Expel Her For Being Too Thin

Strange debate between a Yale student Frances Chan, and the "Faculty".

Seems the girl was apparently "too thin" and according to her, the school was ready to toss her.

They put her on mandatory "weigh-ins" and countless appointments with doctors etc. etc.

They even tried to label her "mentally ill" and told her that her low weight would kill her.

I guess she beat the system finally after a year of fighting and after writing a story in the Huffington Post that got some attention.

It must have been some kind of "guidelines" set up by the Yale "Skull and Bones Society" ?

NEW HAVEN >> Frances Chan says she’s done stuffing her face with ice cream and Cheetos just to make Yale University happy. After months of wrangling, the university finally agrees.

The 20-year-old history major has spent the past few months sparring with Yale’s health center over her low weight. Chan is 5’2” and 92 lbs., and Yale doctors were concerned her health was severely at risk.

She contended that she’s always been very thin, as were her parents and grandparents at her age.

Yet until Friday, Yale had been telling Chan she might be forced to leave school if she didn’t put on some pounds.

Control freaks ? or was it law students staging a "moot investigation" to avoid a lawsuit ?

Yale student , 92 lbs., stuffed her face with Cheetos, ice cream to pacify school officials

reply to post by xuenchen


The progressive mindset hard at work keeping people safe. I have come to understand the people that need help are the progressives and that is why they point so many fingers outward. They know deep down they are nuts.



I feel sorry for them.

Utterly petty and ridiculous.

First and foremost, is Yale not an institution of education, rather than a clinic for the diagnosing and treatment of eating disorders?

I suppose it's merely a playground for control freaks, even if she did have an eating disorder, thats no business of thiers.

Next thing they will be picking on people who are overweight. I agree it is none of their business how much someone weighs.

BMI is completely useless outside the norm. People who are athletic or into bodybuilding (yes, even natural) sometimes show a BMI that says they're either deathly skinny, or morbidly obese. Amazing it took her that long to sort it out.

Im 47 I have been 147 lbs up and 141 med and 137 lower since I left high school in 1984. I still lift more than most 300 lb ers I do it almost daily. I out strenghth 95% of everyone I know and have met in 30 years. I am also very cut and never work out. I work at little task and I am sexy. Yale are a bunch of freaks, I have the nerve to send a bunch of skinny Georgia boys up there just to mess with them. Lets make skulls and bones what it should be, skull and bones.

That is ridiculous! The picture of her is fine! A woman that size can weigh as low as 90! She is only 5'2! I weigh a bit more and I am 5'1. My current weight is 126. Then again I have had four kids. I use to weigh 109. My guess is because she wasn't overweight and eating crap food, so they assumed she was ill. Not the schools place to tell someone that. Standards have dropped.

Ridiculous. I am 36 and just passed the 100 lb. mark without being 7 months pregnant for the first time in my life. I am 5'3. I weighed under 90 lbs. when I got married. I have always eaten like a pig and have never been able to gain weight... and I tried. Hard. I have bought the weight gainer crap from GNC and every other gimmick known to man to put on a few pounds until I gave up trying about 10 years ago. I despised being skinny. It's nice to know that it could have been made worse by ignorance like this. The girl in the article is probably like me.

Some people can't gain weight. I guess since they are Yale, then they know everything about everything though.

reply to post by xuenchen


If they can successfully dictate what is "too thin" then that opens the door to determining what is "too fat".

reply to post by beezzer


Exactly - I can imagine the outrage of she was on the other end of the spectrum and being kicked out for being "too fat."

While her BMI is low (16.8, considered underweight) I assume by her name that she is Asian, and Asians tend to have lower BMIs. In fact, there are different BMI standards for Asians, or those of Asian descent. 27 or above is considered obese instead of 30 or above, for instance. (aadi.joslin.org...)

It sounds like Yale student health services was trying to treat her for anorexia, based on what she was saying, and it likely is within the school regulations to be able to suspend a student who has medical (including mental health) issues that need to be addressed in order to safely continue education. Probably well-intended policies, but followed without common sense. Some people are naturally thin, and some are naturally overweight. I am shocked that doctors were unable to differentiate between a young women who is naturally thin versus a woman with an eating disorder.

There is probably much more to the story than we know.

a reply to: xuenchen

Ok, so is she anorexic or not? I'm thinking she probably is, based on her anger at having to eat more. Plus she sounds like it based on the other info. If she isn't and is just like a natural twig then yeah this whole thing is dumb but imo chances are she has an eating disorder. Might even be bulimic actually.

Honestly, it's kind of nice that Yale actually noticed. Her being a skeleton walking around would probably also trigger others imo. I wish Loyola had done something similar for me. I am 5'2 and got down to about 84 lbs while there and eventually made myself an appointment at the health center where they didn't seem too concerned. I vaguely remember seeing some social worker who advised me to get help or something. But being sick at the time I don't honestly remember very much. It's all kinda a blur for me. I don't agree that they could expel her though. Perhaps force her to take medical leave so that they could stave off legal responsibility for possibly having her death on their hands if they just let her go on with it.

I'm not sure where one needs to draw the line. On one hand, I get what Yale's doing and I don't think that the intent is bad but legally it tramples on her rights. Probably the school shouldn't get involved but I don't think that it's inherently wrong that they get involved. I honestly am not too sure on this one.