Keep rollen' along

Well, a lot has appeared to happen since my last post; I say "appeared" because I have yet to see tangible change with regard to the issues raised, and I will take my cues in that regard from the students effected. But I did have a seemingly productive exchange with the current director of the Office of Disability Services who made the Buick / Cadillac [I know I misspelled that before] comment. She explained it's intent in our correspondence and later in a general e-mail to the campus at large, but as I expressed to her, intent means little compared to perceived meaning in the court of public opinion, and an explanation is not an apology. I do empathize with her because my words and actions have been misconstrued in the past, at which juncture,however, I did issue a public apology directly to those affected. I do find it troubling that the "official" response was stamped with her supervisor's email.... But as I said, I do believe the current director, despite the absence of an apology, has student's best interests at heart.

I have called for the following investigations and dialogs:

1. Open, recorded dialog with students, administrators advocates and civil rights attorneys regarding the language and boundaries of Title 42 compliance.

2. A similar dialog and subsequent assessment of compliance regarding reasonable accommodation specifically in relation to significant, or catastrophic, spinal cord injury, to include credible medical experts in the field of spinal cord injury research.

3. Provisions for incoming Capital Scholars incoming Freshmen with paralysis to be offered priority housing in townhouses or like facilities to accommodate adaptive equipment.

4. Above all, no more closed-door meetings on these, or similar issues. Students should not find themselves defending their account of meetings, or phone conversations, with administrators against those of the administrators themselves, who could use power differential to their collective advantage. The culture of secrecy and paranoia, us vs. them needs to stop.

I have been asked to join a disability advisory committee. We shall see what comes of it.