DREAM Weekly on Disability and Higher Education in the News: February 18-24, 2018
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) ------------------------------- Disability and higher education in the news (in no particular order): * Brown University students are advocating for a disability identity and cultural center on campus that would offer peer-based mental health services, study spaces, and activities to build community: http://www.browndailyherald.com/2018/02/21/students-propose-disability-identity-center/ * After six years, students can no longer get Pell grants as part of their need-based federal aid, but that’s not enough time for many students with disabilities to complete their degree, and if students start to work more to make up the difference, they can lose their Social Security benefits: http://www.statepress.com/article/2018/02/spcampus-government-scholarship-limits-can-hurt-students-with-disabilities * A student newspaper series on accessibility at Trinity University in Texas concludes with recommendations for administrators, including a critique of how the Campus Master Plan is not going to improve many inaccessible spaces: https://www.trinitonian.com/reflecting-on-campus-inaccessibility/ * Harvard University student and fashion blogger Elsie Tellier is gaining a following, with her customized wheelchair and advice about fashion for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses: https://www.bustle.com/p/this-fashion-bloggers-customized-wheelchair-went-viral-its-seriously-stylish-8240412 * After numerous problems with disability programs at Oberlin, the campus has created a Disability Solidarity Theme Hall, proposed a new student organization to create community, and started a series of forums as the Office of Disability Resources searches for a new director after merging with another office: https://oberlinreview.org/15486/news/office-of-disability-resources-prepares-to-hire-new-full-time-director/ * Offensive academic arguments about disability take a very real toll on people who live with disabilities, and professor Elizabeth Barnes says she understands the “privilege of an academic life” is to struggle with these arguments and point out their flaws: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arguments-That-Harm-And/242543 * Students can now major in medicinal plant chemistry at Northern Michigan University, to learn more about growing and dispensing medical marijuana: http://abc13.com/education/cannabis-college-marijuana-a-major-as-industry-grows/3097291/ * Reports of hate crimes at colleges went up in 2016, although disability-based hate crimes have not increased since 2012 (the article links to the report’s website, where you can learn more about hate crimes on your campus or in your state): https://www.chronicle.com/article/After-2016-Election-Campus/242577?cid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=dfc72ec0f7b74820b937a8ce61874e69&elq=9d8a710539a3404584879f5e6e266cad&elqaid=17933&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7949 * If you’re a student, your roommate and friends probably knows you best, so researchers at New York University are suggesting campuses train students to recognize mental health issues early and make referrals to campus resources: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5409223/Is-snowflake-generation-self-obsessed.html * Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Peyton Barber’s dyslexia and ADHD was diagnosed in his first year of college, but he didn’t figure out strategies for himself until he had a coach with ADHD who shared some tips: http://www.espn.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/71011/dyslexia-is-an-ability-not-a-disability-for-buccaneers-peyton-barber * The University of Kansas has reimbursed the state for more than $7.1 million after its now-closed Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation overbilled the state’s Medicaid program for services: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/business/article200278994.html * STEP UP at the University of Southern Mississippi just celebrated its 10th year of improving transition for youth with disabilities by working directly with young people: http://news.usm.edu/article/step-leadership-council-celebrates-10th-anniversary * Concerned about whether hate crimes at Binghamton University were being tracked accurately, the student newspaper Pipe Dream partnered with ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” project to track incidents, including disability hate crimes: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/91897/help-pipe-dream-track-hate-crimes-and-bias-incidents-at-binghamton-university/ * Montreal professor Samuel Archibald continues to be in the news after his university’s insurance provider found pictures of him “looking happy” on social media and assumed he wasn’t ill, denying his disability claim; the case has raised questions about whether how frequently claims agents are browsing social media for evidence: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/02/19/novelists-battle-over-disability-insurance-claim-sparks-a-reckoning-in-quebec.html * Wheelchair basketball player and Tish School of the Arts student Josie Aslakson will compete in Germany this fall as a member of the U.S. Women’s World Championship Wheelchair Basketball team: https://www.nyunews.com/2018/02/19/02-19-sports-josie/ * Competitors are gearing up for the Ms. Blind Diva Empowerment Pageants in New Jersey, an idea of Essex County College student Krystle Allen: http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2018/02/blind_divas_gear_up_for_empowermentpageant_carter.html * The lack of college degrees is becoming a public health crisis, says researcher Ellen Meara of Dartmouth University: https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Lack-of-a-College-Degree/242524?cid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=c8158421632440a6851b7ad6db574547&elq=9d8a710539a3404584879f5e6e266cad&elqaid=17933&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7949 * Starting each class with a booming “HEEELLLLO,” East Tennessee State University professor Chris Dula’s daily greeting went viral, but then people also found out he has brain cancer and started following his treatment and progress on social media: https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/helloooooooooooooooo?utm_term=.kiYm2oNwy#.fnLXxGRAd * Yeshiva University students and alumni are actively working to address stigma about mental illness in the Jewish community through Refuat Hanefesh, a non-profit established by a YU alum: http://yucommentator.org/2018/02/current-former-yu-students-join-forces-fight-mental-health-stigma-inequality-jewish-community/ * Cornell University has started a campaign to teach the campus more about disability, using the hashtag #DiversityIncludesDisability: http://cornellsun.com/2018/02/22/university-campaign-highlights-the-importance-of-acknowledging-disability-in-diversity/ * A former competitive swimmer for Oberlin, student Melissa Harris encourages college athletes to start talking about eating disorders and mental health issues after her own experiences with depression, OCD and disordered eating: https://oberlinreview.org/15438/sports/athletic-programs-must-open-dialogue-on-eating-disorders/ * This month’s Dialogues on Disability feature Jesse Prinz, CUNY professor of philosophy (all past shows are archived at this website): http://philosophycommons.typepad.com/disability_and_disadvanta/dialogues-on-disability/ * He started his own farm at age 14, but was worried university would be too much of a challenge with learning disabilities; now Thian Carman is succeeding in studying animal science at Dalhousie University in Canada: https://www.dal.ca/news/2018/02/20/up-for-the-challenge.html * Students should reach out if they are concerned about a friend having an eating disorder, says Gonzaga university student Beatrice O’Campo, who has struggled with anorexia: https://www.gonzagabulletin.com/opinion/article_43c92886-1748-11e8-8a83-e3c8fb1d1b50.html * Laisa Ledua Bulatale is a musician who just became a human rights lawyer in Fiji, interested in human rights after growing up with a visual impairment from albinism: http://fijisun.com.fj/2018/02/22/musician-turns-to-law-as-a-career/ * Stop using psychology and trauma as an excuse for not listening to conservative ideas on campus, says a column in the National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/mental-health-college-progressives-misuse-science-ideological-agenda/ * Adams State University fired president Beverlee McClure, after reports of her bullying colleagues and wearing an offensive Halloween costume to a party, complete with a fat suit and buck teeth (described as offensive for its classism, not ableism): https://www.chronicle.com/article/Claims-of-Bullyingan/242589?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=786c841a072d4e4b9780580477632088&elq=768fcdb318c2438bba44083b59fa842f&elqaid=17915&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7938 And a few related items of possible interest to college students: * Is Black Panther like a “therapy session in cinematic form”? It’s representation of fictional African country Wakanda is prompting many Black people to ask how much oppression, racism, and poverty are affecting rates of chronic physical and mental illnesses: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/black-panther-mental-health-black-community/story?id=53173004 * With another mass shooting at a Florida high school last week, debates about disability and violence is also in the news:
* The “able-bodied” are a myth that connect to historical ideas about who deserves help from the government and who doesn’t, says Emily Badger and Margot Sanger-Katz in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/upshot/medicaid-able-bodied-poor-politics.html * Tv show Drunk History looks at Judy Heumann and the 504 sit-ins, with its usual foul-mouthed humor and plenty of alcohol: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2p86bg/drunk-history-judy-heumann-fights-for-people-with-disabilities * At what point is disability actually death? The New Yorker looks at the disturbing case of Jahi McMath, and how one family’s experience of race, medicine, disability, and different definitions of “brain-dead” have affected the entire field of medicine and the media reporting on it: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/what-does-it-mean-to-die * Everyone supports disability rights, yes, but that doesn’t mean they actually are willing to take action, so CrippledScholar gives some suggests for what people can actually do to prove they mean what they say: https://crippledscholar.com/author/crippledscholar/ * Talk show host Wendy Williams will take a three-week hiatus as she continues to deal with Graves’ disease (video not captioned or audio described): https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/entertainment/wendy-williams-graves-disease/index.html * Charging more for an accessible hotel room is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped hotels from doing it: https://wheelchairtravel.org/disability-tax-ada-accessible-hotel-rooms/ * U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is proposing elimination of the Office of Postsecondary Education and the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education by combining them into a single office: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/19/proposed-education-department-reorganization-would-merge-higher-ed-related-offices * Alaska will no longer allow businesses to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage through a legal loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act: https://thinkprogress.org/alaska-minimum-wage-diability-b762e00ab279/ * The Flash’s character of “The Thinker” was physically disabled because of his massive mental powers, so what happens when he transfers consciousness to a nondisabled body? (a heads up – there are spoilers in the article, and the video has no captions or audio description): http://comicbook.com/dc/2018/02/19/the-flash-is-the-thinker-really-still-the-thinker-/ * Riverdale star Camila Mendes shared her experiences with eating disorders and her partnership with Project HEAL to encourage healthier eating habits under the #DoneWithDieting hashtag: https://collegecandy.com/2018/02/20/camila-mendes-riverdale-project-heal-done-wtih-dieting/ * A social justice group in Michigan is pushing the Earned Sick Time Act, which would guarantee all state workers have access to paid sick leave if they need medical care, counseling, or court time for illnesses or experiences of violence: http://news.jrn.msu.edu/2018/02/group-pushes-for-paid-leave-for-illness-sexual-assault-domestic-violence/ * After being diagnosed in her early 20’s, Irish soccer player Richael Timothy denied how much epilepsy was affecting her, but now she is speaking out about it after switching sports and becoming a para-cyclist: http://www.the42.ie/richael-timothy-epilepsy-3855143-Feb2018/ * A model with disabilities asks why disability isn’t more visible at London Fashion Week: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43130155 ------------------------------- This week’s issue of the DREAM weekly e-mail is available at the DREAM website, with archived back issues available, as well (http://www.dreamcollegedisability.org). For more information about DREAM or AHEAD contact Wendy Harbour ([email protected]). To subscribe or unsubscribe, please go to http://ahead-listserve.org/mailman/listinfo/dream_ahead-listserve.org. Wendy Harbour can also handle requests to subscribe or unsubscribe. By the way, please don't presume DREAM, the National Center for College Students with Disabilities, or AHEAD agree with everything in these links we send out - we're just passing along the information so you can form your own opinions. Thanks. Comments are closed.
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