EMU strives to create an atmosphere where each student experiences intellectual development and personal growth. It is the responsibility of the faculty, staff and students to foster and protect that atmosphere in order to provide each student with an opportunity for success. When an unmarried student becomes pregnant, she is faced with many difficult decisions. While EMU does not support a student’s choice to engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage, we do support the decision to carry the child to full term. In order to provide support, and encourage mental and physical healthcare, unwed pregnant students will be referred to meet with the vice president for student life or an appropriate designee. The student may be required to sign a wellbeing contract agreeing to engage in pre-natal care and personal counseling in order to remain enrolled at EMU. Identified fathers who are EMU students may also be required to engage in parenting classes designed to help them prepare for the new responsibilities they will have, whether they plan to marry the expectant mother or not. If the expectant mother and father are together as a couple, these parenting classes may be done jointly to prepare for possible marriage or co-parenting responsibilities.
Fathers who are not EMU students may be invited to join the expectant mother in couples counseling or parenting classes. Classes and couples counseling at the EMU counseling center will be offered free of charge to both expectant parents, but other services outside EMU will be the responsibility of the expectant parents to pay. A faculty/staff mentor with parenting experience may also be chosen by the expectant parents to aid them in their steps toward parenthood. Additional steps may also be needed as determined by student life personnel on a case-by-case basis.