Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Persons with Disability

October 16, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Members present: Mark Goerdert, Ann Barnds, Jerry Lockwood, Alanna O’Connor, Joann Gras, Elizabeth Gates-Ehlers, Janis Hayden, Marsha Cassidy, and Ryan Parrey.

Members unable to attend: Joy Hammel, Janet Smith, Ed Garay, Robin Hursey, Peter Berg, William Schubert, Drew Browning, and Michelle Bulanda.

Guests: Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares, Caryn Bills, Roxanna Stupp, and Lowell M. Seida.

GA: Sean Plomann

I. Approval of Agenda and September’s CCSPD Minutes
• Agenda: 1st- Joann Gras, 2nd- Alanna O’Connor
• September’s CCSPD Minutes: 1st- Elizabeth Gates- Ehlers, 2nd- Ann Barnds
  
  
II. Campus update from Chancellor Allen-Meares
• The Chancellor’s house has been made accessible so students and faculty who are disabled can visit and make their concerns known.
• On October 22nd, Stanley Ikenberry and his board of trustees will visit both the east and west side of campus. On November 6th, another group will visit. Stanley Ikenberry will also be looking for a new president.
• The issues of deferred maintenance and areas of inaccessibility on campus are high priorities for the Chancellor.
• Many architects do not take into account accessibility and, thus, more architects who are sensitive to accessibility are needed as far as renovations at UIC. Housing and campus projects should be monitored to make sure there is someone who is knowledgeable about Universal Design. A review process should also be developed for these projects. Housing must be made more welcoming towards students with disabilities. Jack Kaplan will also be consulted in this effort.
• For new projects, emphasis should be placed on crafting language about accessibility when it comes to the architects who are designing and renovating buildings on both sides of campus. However, the language crafted for accessibility should be used before the bidding process begins on the renovations of old buildings and design of new buildings.
• Mark Donovan, or one of his representatives, will be invited to the next CCSPD meeting to talk about deferred maintenance and accessibility at UIC. At this meeting, try to have people from various disability related departments attend.
• Roxanna will make information in the Disability Resource Center available to the Chancellor on accessibility issues.
• UIC campus should be made more accessible and include accessibility components in the architecture of UIC in order to promote inclusion. Better accessibility at UIC would likely bring in more students to UIC and the Disability Studies PhD Program at UIC. This emphasis will help promote UIC to make it world renowned and allow UIC to be a model to other universities in the field of Disability Studies and accessibility for people with disabilities.
• Efforts should be made to promote and encourage the growth of the Disability Studies PhD program in order to receive more students. The curriculum across the University should be improved and incorporate disability into it. This would also allow UIC to become a model for other universities.
• The AHEAD Climate study will be utilized by UIC and the CCSPD as it is the 1st study of its kind which will evaluate disability as far as UIC’s students and faculty who are with and without disabilities. AHEAD will conduct the analysis for the survey and a research assistant will collect the data. The survey will collect data on both visible and invisible disabilities as well as on people who do not usually disclose their disabilities.
• The ACDC committee will be revisited in order to reassess their mission.  An extended membership for the committee was suggested.
• A permanent committee will possibly be formed which will capture institutional support and deal with physical accessibility and UIC’s facilities. It will involve a more proactive approach and involve a systematic collection of data in regards to accessibility. This committee may be the ACDC committee if it is restructured.
• An effort will be made to make faculty more aware of what reasonable accommodations are in regards to students.

III. Subcommittee Reports

A. Program Committee


• October 5th event was a success with over sixty people in attendance. An adjustment will be made on the final invoice for the room reservation because of a technical malfunction.
• Despite some technical problems at first, the Oct. 5th event had great reviews and educated the attendees.
• Deans and UIC faculty will be encouraged to attend future CCSPD events.
• Caryn Bills says there will be a training program on the ADA revisions later in the year.
• Deans and Department Heads will also be encouraged to be involved and get faculty to attend the UIC’s Faculty Diversity Program.
  
  
B. Outreach Task Force


• Will discuss disability issues with other Status Committees as well as student groups. Also, invite students who may be ignorant of disability issues.
• Will also involve UIC’s student governments in discussions on disability issues. The presidents of the student governments will be invited as well.
• Maxine Goldberg will possibly try to recruit people for meetings regarding disability issues.
• Next meetings for the Outreach Task Force will be in January and March of 2010. Although, since people will be coming back from Winter break, the January meeting for the Outreach Task Force may only involve its Co-chairs.
• Contact should be made with the Cultural Center in regards to Disability Culture.
• It was suggested that student concerns might be put at the top of the agenda for the meetings of the Outreach Task Force.
• The meetings for the Outreach Task Force could be a good outlet for promoting the AHEAD survey.
  
  
C. Survey Committee


• This report will be on hold for now. Janis Hayden will send a letter to the Provost for support for the AHEAD survey.

D. Technology Committee

• Resolve content issues with the CCSPD website. Issues which need to be resolved before meeting with people from the ITL are conveying what the purpose of the CCSPD is as well as the content on disability in relation to the CCSPD.  Other messages which should be conveyed are what the CCSPD can do and will do for UIC’s faculty and students.
• Obsolete information will be cleared out of the CCSPD website.
• An idea suggested is creating something similar to the UIC’s online Portal system
• The CCSPD website will be made more visible and less plain. It will also be made accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities.
• Try to make it so CCSPD Co-Chairs are able to update the CCSPD website. This includes not just the current Co-Chairs but also future Co-Chairs of the CCSPD.
• Will look into a possible system of automatic deletion of CCSPD events once they pass.
• It will be decided who will own the email account ccspd@uic.edu if Drew Browning does not wish to be the owner of it. In the future, there may be several owners to access this account.

IV. CCSPD Brochure Update


• Old CCSPD is outdated.
• Janet Smith is working on an updated CCSPD brochure.
• An accessible version of the brochure will be put on the CCSPD website once an update version is created.
  
  
V. New Business


• It was agreed that utilizing the listserves to send out information in regards to the CCSPD meetings and issues is more effective and cuts down on the use of paper for meetings. This will be used in the future.