Student advocacy group  sets deadline for action

By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropolitan

An advocacy group for disabled students has set Sept. 8 as the deadline for Metroās top administrators to formally commit to addressing six key disability issues at the college.

Members of Leadership Education and Advocacy with Direction said they want to keep the request on an amicable level, but will publicly protest if Metro President Sheila Kaplan and eight other administrators donāt issue a written response by that date.

In an Aug. 13 memo addressed to the college administrators, LEAD members detailed several things that troubled them about how the college handles students with disabilities.

Brenda Mosby, vice president of LEAD, said the group set the deadline because it wants the college to commit to finding solutions to the problems disabled Metro students face at the college.

Teresa Harper, vice president for Diversity for Metroās student government, helped LEAD draft its request. She said students with disabilities have received lukewarm results in their dealings with Metroās administration in the past.

Harper said the written request is a call for prompt administrative action.

ćFor years and years and years students with disabilities have done everything they need to do to try and get things done at the college,ä Harper said. ćNow theyāre saying, Īwe want action.āä

Metro spokeswoman Sherry Patton said Metroās administration is taking LEADās request seriously and has completed its response to the group.

Another spokeswoman in Pattonās department said the college sent out its response to LEADās concerns by mail Aug. 27.

The spokeswoman said LEAD could receive the response as early as Aug. 28.

Earlier in the week, Patton said the administrative reply to LEAD will be ćpositive.ä

The following are the six things LEAD wants college administrators to commit to doing.

š Make a temporary resource guide on disability issues available at the beginning of the fall semester while the college works on developing a permanent disability handbook.

š Form a committee to do a self-evaluation of the collegeās disability policies, programs and procedures.

š Officially identify the collegeās American with Disabilities Act coordinator.

š House the tutoring centerās administrative office in a location accessible to students who use wheelchairs and have other physical disabilities. The college moved the tutoring center to the second floor of the St. Francis Center this spring. That location is not wheelchair accessible, according to LEAD.

š Establish a formal training program on disability issues for Metro faculty and staff.

š Create a task force to address the needs of students with disabilities. LEAD members are asking that the task force consist of people knowledgeable in either disability law or the medical and physical aspects of disabilities.