DREAM Weekly E-Mail: January 31-February 6, 2021

DREAM Weekly Email, Disability and Higher Education in the News: January 31-February 6, 2021
 
From DREAM: Disability Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring
Sponsored by the National Center for College Students with Disabilities and
the Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD)
 
This week’s newsletter and archived newsletters are available at www.DREAMCollegeDisability.org
 
 
Top Five News Items This Week (see attached Word document for full newsletter with links):

• After nearly ten years of work, the National Coordinating Center at Think College has established model program standards that will be used to create accreditation standards for inclusive higher education programs (the report is available at https://thinkcollege.net/sites/default/files/files/ModelProgramAccreditationStandards_10-2020_F.pdf)
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has not renewed its contract with Proctorio, saying there are significant accessibility concerns with its test proctoring; the issues echo nation-wide concerns about disability barriers with cheating-prevention software.
• Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) received $1.5 million from AT&T to address pandemic needs, including a lack of mental health services, funds for housing and food insecurity, and support for greater Wi-Fi access.
• Disabled University of Tokyo professor and pediatrician Shinichiro Kumagaya is an expert in tojisha-kenkyu, and is now teaching the self-directed research approach to people with disabilities across the country.
• Are you into K-Dramas?  You may want to check out “Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Jo,” which is about college athletes struggling with mental health.

 
General News:

• The Hoya’s Editorial Board has published a call for a Disability Cultural Center at Georgetown University, saying students have worked on the issue for more than eight years, and the university’s failure to act has “emblematized the other ableist barriers” on campus.
• The film CODA won top awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize; the movie is about a Deaf couple’s daughter who wants to study music at college.
• Springer Nature is retracting a book chapter about “Deaf-Dumb People” after scholars in the deaf community said it was “unbelievably insulting.”
• Louisiana State University has published a guide for students, to help students decide when to talk with a therapist, what to expect, and how to find a therapist off-campus.
• Texas State University is using the online simulation program Kognito to help all students and faculty learn about mental health, how to get assistance if you need it, and how to help others who may want to talk.
• Making Sense will debut at Boston SciFi; the independent feature film is about an aging neuroscientist who asks disabled and nondisabled grad students to help him study whether people with disabilities “hold the key to unlocking a sixth sense.”
• When New Mobility magazine sent a journalist to see if the campus would be on their list of mobility-friendly campuses in the US, the university welcomed him with a “Warhawk Wheels” van after his vehicle broke down in the 10-degree weather.
• Researchers in the UK have published a new book: Social Research and Disability: Developing Inclusive Research Space for Disabled Researchers.
• After almost 40 years, Harvard University released a report and apologized to former professor Terry Karl, who had to leave after Harvard protected a colleague who was sexually harassing her; the abuse contributed to a decline of Karl’s existing chronic health conditions.
• Macalester Collee has received a grant to formalize and expand MentorUP, a program that pairs disabled students together in mentoring relationships.
• While 80% of U.S. physicians say disabled people have a poor quality of life, doctors at university-affiliated medical centers had the most positive attitudes about disability.
• Development of a new Center of Excellence for Veteran Student Success in underway at Bellarmine University, including services for veteran students with disabilities.
• Brookdale Community College in New Jersey declared itself a “Stigma-Free Zone” to help eliminate stigma about mental illness and substance abuse.
• Deaf artist and activist Christine Sun Kim created “Stacking Traumas” – a mural for the Kemper Art Museum, which will have an online exhibition later in February.
• SUNY Empire State College have announced plans to receive an “Autism Supportive College” designation from the Anderson Center for Autism, while working with Anderson to develop numerous new autism programs.

 
BIPOC and Diversity News:

• College student and TikTok star Nakia Smith and Ryerson professor James Etheridge are just two Canadians calling for more research into Black American Sign Language in Canada.
• A Northwestern University postdoc died this week after admitting he posted racist and violent material in an anonymous Twitter account, including hopes for a new “Generation Zyklon” (Nazis first tested Zyklon on people with disabilities) [Content warning: despite a benign headline, the article contains numerous graphic excerpts from the Twitter account and discusses suicide.]
• Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt from Linfield University is the new editor of InsideHigherEd’s “Conditionally Accepted” column; she commits to creating a safe space for marginalized grad students, staff, and faculty in higher education, including creating what she describes as an antiracist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, and anti-ableist online community.

 
COVID-19 News:

• Over 200 staff signed a petition protesting Georgetown University forcing them to temporarily assume “health-related tasks” like conducting wellness screenings, without concerns about the “excess burden” on people with disabilities, women, parents, people with low incomes, and BIPOC staff.
• One-third of all students visiting their college counseling center in late 2020 said they had mental health issues stemming from the pandemic.
• Sam Evergreen finally realized she could get accommodations at Bellevue College as a deaf non-signing student, but then the pandemic hit and a new round of challenges arose.
• Colleges may require students and employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but are likely to allow medical exemptions.

 
 
 
 
Politics and Law:

• The US Department of Justice found Old Dominion University did violate the ADA and Section 504 in a disability discrimination complaint involving retaliation against a graduate student requesting accommodations.
• Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education, is headed for Senate confirmation; he will face “a catastrophic” situation with the pandemic, including “significantly more mental and social and emotional health issues” of K-12 and college students also facing higher food insecurities.
• Deaf Gallaudet University student Vitali GossJankowski was arrested for participating in the rioting and storming of the US Capitol on January 6, after positing on Facebook that “the cops won’t touch me.”
• Michigan Senate Republicans angry about COVID restrictions have rejected Governor Whitmer’s appointees to the Board of Trustees for Northern Michigan University and Michigan Technological University; one appointee is Jason Morgan, who wanted to be on the board of NMU’s in appreciation for its support when he was a disabled student on campus.
• A Texas appeals court delayed the execution of Edward Lee Busby to review claims he is intellectually disabled; Busby is in prison for abducting and killing a retired college professor in Fort Worth.

 
International News:

• In Marie Claire, Jenny Hollander talks about how she and another university student had both found dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder) to be common in the UK and almost unknown in the US.
• In Ireland, 23 higher education institutions will share €5.4 million in funding for disability initiatives, including sensory rooms, orientation and mobility apps, hiring of new staff, and other services and programs.
• At Lancaster University in England, an “Improve Your Learning” campaign is being led by Students with Disabilities Officer Molly Lawson after a team found various barriers for disabled students on campus.

 
Student Stories:

• Cochlear Limited announced the eight winners of its annual scholarships competitions for “exemplary young leaders in the hearing loss community.”

 
Faculty and Staff Stories:

• Disabled artist and professor Riva Lehrer has published Golem Girl: A Memoir about her life and the history of disability culture.

 
 
 
 
DREAM and the NCCSD are funded through a grant to AHEAD from the US Dept. of Education (P116D150005).  For more information about DREAM, send an email to DREAM@ahead.org.  This newsletter is available in other formats upon request.  If you have difficulty accessing articles, please let us know and we may be able to help. 
 
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By the way, please don't presume DREAM, AHEAD, the NCCSD, or the U.S. Department of Education agree with everything we send out - we're just passing along the information so you can form your own opinions.  Thanks.
 
DREAM and the NCCSD acknowledge, with respect, the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe -- the Indigenous people on whose ancestral lands DREAM and the NCCSD are based.  We hope our work honors them.