Penny -- I took Miranda (now 15 years old, and with an "attitude") into my
graduate classes at IU Bloomington all fall of 1980.  I was taking two
classes, and asked the professor's permission before hand.  I explained that
since she would be very young (she was born on August 8th), she would be
either sleeping or nursing the entire class time.  I offered to sit right by
the door (and did) and said that if she became at all distracting, I would
immediately leave.  Both the male professors (one a professor of Gulf
Arabic, the other a demographer) said it would be fine.  It worked out
great, as she WAS either asleep or nursing the whole semester long.  I never
had to leave.  One thing that did become a problem was all the attention she
got from the other students at the beginning of class -- especially they
liked to wake her up!  I still remember one girl who was almost pervertedly
obsessive about Miranda, wanting to hold her all the time and kitchy-coo
her, etc.  She was weird.  The next semester, spring, it wouldn't have
worked to have her in class with me, because she spent a lot of time awake
but not nursing, and by that time (5 months) was making lots of goos and
coos and cute little baby noises.  She would have been very distracting!
But by that time she could easily be with dad for a class or two (actually,
I don't even remember now, 15 years later, if I took classes that spring --
I think I was done by then).

Re the liability issue -- it is a red herring, sort of the first thing the
university officials trot out to try to discourage mothers.  They tried this
with an employee at A&M.  It doesn't hold water, because there are children
on campus all the time -- at sporting events, accompanying their faculty
parents to work, accompanying students to classes on days when the public
schools are closed, using the library, using the sports facilities, etc.
They don't tell people using the library that their children or infants
can't come in with them.  They don't tell students they can't bring their 10
year olds to class, so they can't tell them they can't bring their 1 year
olds.  Some of the chemistry labs do have signs saying "No Unauthorized
Personnel" and this applies to people of all ages.

Sigh.

Kathy Dettwyler