November 30^th, 2020

CUNY Unlimited FIG

3^rd meeting, Fall semester 2020

Attendees: Cecelia Nunziato, Margot Cole ( alum)  Carrie Shockley, Sue Carpenter, Lisa Esposito, Jason Lau ( MRHEP)  Michael Lettman (MRHEP student), Don Hume, Jenna Lamm, Gabriela Dekki, Dr. Tameka Battle (Director of Recreation Therapy at LaGuardia), Melisa Jn Pierre, Stella Woodroffe, MaryLou Fierle (HPER), Nicholas Skirka (HPER), Nick G, Carol Carielli and Jeremy Sawyer

• Welcome to all

Introduction of alumni, MRHEP students faculty and staff to guest speakers Jenna Lamm- co Ordinator of CUNY Central disability programs and Carrie Shockley- Director of the JFK Junior Institute and co-ordinator of TPSID grant

FIG started in 2016 and now has a wide range of stake holders/ members. Starting with a few attendees which is now up to 18 attendees !

 Presentation by Carrie and Jenna (with PPt slides)

 Notes from Jenna’s power point (power point in separate file attached)

4 pillars based on Federal requirements for CTP designation: Academic Access (full registration, etc), Campus Integration (join clubs, other campus groups, civic engagement), Career Preparation (internships, work study, soft skill learning on campus, work-based learning), Self-Determination (independent living, self-advocacy skills).

*Students Unlimited, Student World Assembly.

*Kristin and Sue helped to develop this vision (2 years with option of 3rd, D75 model; or 3 years with optional 4th, as in Melissa Riggio).

4-year CUNY Unlimited Plan (presented here)

*36 academic credits (12 in a major, 9 electives)

*12 Employment credits (4 work-based internships)

*3 Social credits (CE, Club Leadership, Advocacy) – Stella raised a point about this

Funding

*Applied for TPSID, but wasn’t renewed; previous grant had an employment developer

*Neidler – trying for this community living grant, and building employment opportunities

Q & A

-Michael Lettman: looking for internships-

Follow up: Eric Conte of NYC Men Teach setting up an online field experience with Sue’s assistance with the support of MRHEP

-Don: HPER (Recreation) looking to create a career path. Carrie – it would be great to identify students at KCC who would be interested in such career paths. Students can get Federal Aid and work study, but they are auditing (straddle the line between matriculation and non-matriculation). MRHEP has email and Blackboard, but KCC is not getting paid for this!

Don: Will students be counted as FTE’s? Carrie: probably not. Don: for designing a program, would we design a program for a MRHEP student, or create a more general model? Carrie: some combination – recommend a cluster of classes (track) that could apply to a certain job goal, but then have some flexibility for students to tailor it to their needs.

Follow up : Don organized a meeting with MRHEP and HPER faculty to discuss options with MRHEP – to be contd. Re. pilot program. Sue to look into Education ‘strand’ too.

-Stella: Every campus has to be approved initially (Carrie: and 3 different models per school). Clock hours need to be counted for Financial Aid dollars. KCC is a good place to start because of the high campus support.

-Sue: Are there models where many more students can be served? Carrie: 20 students per campus seems to be the sweet spot for the number of students served. Eventually we would like to offer this on every campus, but we need sufficient support for this.

Follow up : Think College stated that there are some colleges with 50-60 students in a program inc. Houston Texas Community College

-Margot: Would RCIL pay for courses like this?

-Nicholas Skirka (HPER): What is the assessment/selection process like for this program? Jenna: We work closely with AHRC, who are the experts on student evaluation (including medical, etc.) It’s definitely a partnership from the CUNY side with AHRC for admission.

-Jenna: Other projects: Project REACH had an autism and universal design training (two autistic researchers training faculty and staff), trying to start CUNY Autism Network for such trainings. For CUNY Leads we’ve been having online training events (this month virtual interviewing).

-Stella: One student has matriculated from MRHEP to KCC officially.

-Carrie: We’re talking about the next campus that we’re targeting. Kingsborough is putting together an application now, with central guidance.

-Don: can there be a coordinated effort across campuses? Carrie:

-Carrie: Students tell your story as an advocate; think about opening up spaces to work-study program students; spaces for

Questions on CUNY Unlimited Rollout:

1. How long will they wait for the roll out, given the ongoing pandemic? -Fall 2021
2. Can faculty at least be credited for ‘service to the community’ (if not financially) for working with MRHEP students? To be followed up

Announcements / Wrap-Up

Since Margot and her cast (along with Jermaine Greaves) just did the Living with a Disability in 2020 event. Here is a link to the recorded video of the meeting via the chat and email. https://youtu.be/_QdLVQ3myTk

Here is a link to Sue’s talk at University of Kent. https://youtu.be/ut10WLATFvk

on opportunities for inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in Universities in the UK, Europe and the USA.

First meeting of Spring will be before the start of the semester again.

Follow up questions for Jenna (with her answers italicized below): Sue: Would it be possible for us to know the admin. folks at KCC who are working on financial side of the credential? It would be good to be contact with  them to keep them informed of the FIG etc.  Jenna We are working with the Director of Financial Aid, but I do think that these are somewhat separate parts of the program development, and it may be best since they are already so overwhelmed for us to provide updates while we are working on getting the credential approved.

Sue I was really sorry to hear that the second TPSID grant was not successful. I know how much time and energy grant applications take! Did the grant giving body give feedback? I  hope the funding comes through from other perhaps private funding sources. I know  this was the case with Trinity College, Dublin’s program and indeed the MRHEP originally. This is something I am aware of  and looking into re. starting a program up in the UK! I have not seen feedback, but we did hear it was very close! There were very few TPSIDS funded in the Northeast this round, most were Midwest and out West.

A few more questions coming out of the meeting!

Has the first TPSID credential now being approved? Not yet, that is what we are working with KCC admin on getting submitted to the US DOE

Is the roll out of Fall 2021 dependent on whether we are back to face to face teaching etc.? Right now it is dependent on getting CTP approval