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Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 3rd meeting (11/30/20)

November 30th, 2020

CUNY Unlimited FIG

3rd 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

Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 1st meeting (9/8/20)

Fall 2020, First Meeting (9/8/20)

Our first CUNY Unlimited FIG meeting took place (over Zoom) before the start of the semester so that we could discuss and then disseminate tips to faculty regarding teaching students with intellectual/ learning disabilities online. (Learning disabilities is the UK terminology for intellectual disabilities)

The FIG was attended by 12 people: faculty, staff, administrators, and student alumni. Departments and programs represented included English (Enid Stubin), Education (Sue Carpenter, Carole Carielli), Psychology/Education (Jeremy Sawyer), Communications and Performing Arts (Melisa Jn Pierre), and Art (Tommy Mintz). Also attending were Nick Giampetruzzi – Director of CUNY Leads, Stella Woodroffe – Director of the Accessibility Office, Kenaskua Matsuda – Program Director of the Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program (Including KCC and BMCC sites), and Gabriela Dekki from Academic Affairs.

We were delighted to welcome two alumni – Margot Cole, a film director (cripvideoproductions.com) who also teaches acting online, and Andrea Morales-Salinas, who is continuing her 4-year degree in the Education Program at Brooklyn College. Both alumni’s contributions to the meeting were invaluable.

The agenda began with Jeremy’s summary of the FIG’s activity in Spring 2020, which included work around employment for students with disabilities and a lively discussion of two fantastic documentaries (“Summer in the Forest” and “Crip Camp”) about international alternatives to institutionalization of people with intellectual disability, and the U.S. disability rights movement of the 1970s and beyond. Jeremy and Sue shared that they will now use Crip Camp in their Psychology 2400 courses. Margot also showed everyone her copy of the book Being Heumann by Judy Heumann, which accompanies the film.

We continued with personal introductions and updates from all attendees. Stella updated us on an upcoming meeting about CUNY Unlimited with administration. Kensaku let us know that issues regarding technology and access to Blackboard for the MRHEP were presently being sorted, and that Jason Lau was still heading up the KCC MRHEP program. Gabriela shared how various faculty had volunteered to have MRHEP students audit their classes, and how the pairing process was proceeding. Sue was warmly welcomed back from her fellowship leave in the UK – she will be presenting on her findings later in the semester.

Sue gave a summary of CUNY Central news, including the big news of Barbara Bookman, Director of Disability retiring. (See enclosed info.) Also, an announcement about the NJ Neurodiversity Summit on the 25th Sept. was made (as of now Lisa, Jeremy, and Sue will be attending). Enid also spoke eloquently about the stress that she felt in a student role while taking the CUNY online teaching certificate this past summer, and how much she empathized with our students! This point really set the stage nicely for our later discussion elaborating on Sue’s Ten Tips for teaching students online.

The main section of the meeting (which went beyond our allocated time given the enthusiasm for the topic!) was “Best practices for teaching students with intellectual disabilities online.” Sue shared her ten tips that she developed and circulated before the meeting to give our discussion a helpful framing from which to elaborate and brainstorm. It is important to point out that all tips discussed in our meeting are relevant to working with all students (with or without disabilities) online, illustrating the value to all students of universal design.

The following are Sue and Jeremy’s notes on the topics and tips discussed at the meeting. Please add your own notes that we may have missed, and feel free to elaborate on points that you made during the meeting here in written form. We didn’t always catch who made which contribution in our notes, so feel free to add that if you would like to. Please add directly to this Google Doc below:

  • Everyone is stressed (including faculty) during this time of the pandemic. Issues related to economic and racial injustice (Black Lives matter), and other environmental and political concerns add to a sense of urgency and stress as well. Transferring to online teaching is just the icing on the cake. Margot commented on how many of her professors had been unwell health-wise and stressed in the past.
  • Although we have been encouraged to go asynchronous for some legitimate reasons, Andrea shared that she really desires to check in at least once a week via videoconferencing with her instructors, for instance to correct misinterpretations of lessons or written material.
  • Professors: let students know they can ask for any help they need and that you are there to support them! Be welcoming and warmly present.
  • Don’t be afraid to use the power of the accessibility office for support, critical information for students OR faculty, or to even visit your class for presentations (Enid).
  • Online videoconferencing office hours are a good support for students (Carol).
  • Take care of yourself! Self-care is paramount during these challenging times.
  • Don’t require students to download huge files (Margot). Compress files or provide links to the cloud that don’t require downloads.
  • Be aware of ableist language (Stella), for instance phrases we say and don’t think about, such as ‘It makes you go crazy,’ ‘that’s insane,’ or ‘how depressing.’
  • Being aware of microaggressions (Sue), which are subtle forms of generally unintentional discrimination (generally statements or actions) against marginalized groups. One example would be someone finding out that you have a disability and saying “I’ll pray for you” as if they want to find a cure and imagine your life must be terrible with this disability.
  • Beware of pushing ‘help’ onto someone when help is not desired. Ask once only if they need help, and if so what kind (Margot).
  • Beware of automatic assumptions we may make about help needed by the way someone appears to us (Margot/Stella)
  • Everyone is stressed – and students who are given inflexible deadlines for assignments and exams will feel even more stress (Melissa and Enid).
  • Time frames for assignments should be clear, but also FLEXIBLE to accommodate all the turmoil everyone is experiencing (Melisa). Melisa has a “coffee meets bagel” section of her course shell where students can talk to her or each other about any life challenges they are facing, and they can find resources and support to handle them (this is great!)
  • Availability of faculty should be made clear to students. We are of course not available 24/7 and clarifying these boundaries will help both teacher and student (Stella).
  • Clearly define what an ‘Emergency’ is, in relation to students being able to contact faculty in an ‘emergency.’ A student not understanding and trying to do an assignment that they do not understand at 11.30 pm is an emergency to them but not necessarily to a faculty member. (Stella)
  • Blackboard Collaborate has better screen reader accessibility than Zoom (thanks Andrea!) 
  • Pre recorded Blackboard Collaborate videos can be accessible and accessed even when not signed in to your Blackboard account. (Margot) 
  • Zoom group chat can be used as a tool for social interaction among students.
  • Inform students of the services of the counseling office that can support them.
  • How’s your week?’ and ‘How are you coping?’ are good open-ended questions at the beginning of an online class (Melisa)
  • How to overcome the stress of teaching online was also mentioned, for instance using a standing desk, taking breaks, stretching, and keeping meetings short (Sue).

*Our next meeting will be via Blackboard Collaborate in late September or early October to see how the inclusion of students from MRHP program is going.

Thoughts from cofacilitators Jeremy and Sue inspired by the meeting:

Jeremy: The mention of language and microaggressions during our brainstorming was great and got me thinking. We could organize an event or seminar about ableism, microaggressions, etc. at some point even for the school at large. Last year during the annual diversity conference Keisha Thompson and HURFS ran a session on racial microaggressions where they had students role play what to do in situations with microaggressions, and used clips from the show “Blackish” to illustrate racial microaggressions and kick off a discussion of them. It was very well received by students who attended, and I think we could do something similar. Maybe could be a long-term goal of ours to have a session as part of diversity week (and disability awareness week too).

Sue: Sue has written a number of Ten Tips booklets and is thinking of writing another with the above tips – are members OK with being contributors, who will of course be acknowledged? There is still time to add to the list of tips.

Fall 2020, CUNY Unlimited FIG, 2nd meeting

CUNY Unlimited 2nd Fall 2020 FIG Meeting (10/26/20)

Our second FIG meeting of Fall 2020 was attended by 18 people! This included a diverse mix of students, Melissa Riggio mentors and staff, faculty, and staff/administrators from KCC. It was very powerful to share perspectives and make links across our various positions and relations to inclusive education at KCC.

In this meeting the CUNY Unlimited FIG “returned to its roots” by focusing directly on our Melissa Riggio students, which was a focus of the FIG when it was founded by Sue and others some years ago. We had some fantastic guests at this meeting – current Melissa Riggio students and their peer mentors, as well as Kensaku, a director of the Melissa Riggio program.

We discussed their fantastic contributions in general to our learning environments, as well as specific experiences (highlights and/or challenges) with the inclusion process as it is currently unfolding. Below we will fill in notes from the meeting within each section of our agenda:

Agenda

  1. Updates from FIG members (including Margot’s upcoming event) [10 min]

We had some new faculty as well as students and mentors who were attending for the first time, so we did a round of introductions, which highlighted our diverse positions and experiences with disability, but also our common dedication to inclusive education. Margot mentioned her upcoming event “Living with a Disability in 2020” that will take place on November 19th at 10:15am, in which her castmates and she will discuss making art, connecting with others, and living with a disability during the pandemic. 

  1. Contributions made by Melissa Riggio students, the theme of Sue’s upcoming University of Kent talk (Sue will kick off this section) [20min]

Sue kicked off this section by discussing her upcoming talk “The contribution of students with intellectual disabilities in higher education: an international perspective” that she will give on Wed. 10/28 at 1p EST (she will give the talk from the UK at this event sponsored by University of Kent). This theme of contribution framed the discussion in this section…

  1. Our experiences with inclusion this semester (Tommy M., Melissa Riggio mentors, Sue’s student and others welcome to share) [25 min]

This was a lively discussion where we heard from multiple people. A common denominator seemed to be that Melissa Riggio students bring “enthusiasm” for learning and connecting with their peers that seems unrivaled among their classmates. As people reported, this can help to crack the ice and raise the engagement level, even in a fully online course. 

Melissa Riggio students reported the value of feeling that their peer mentors were interested in them as people, beyond their mere academic success, and how much this meant to them. Michael talked about adjusting to college, and wanting to just survive it at first, and saying his mentor has been key in getting accustomed to higher education. Melisa shared that having MRHEP students only officially enter her class 3 weeks into the semester was unfortunate because this is not ideal for students or teachers, and it does not conform with best practices as discussed in our last FIG of wanting to make contact with students and their mentors even before class begins to create an optimal inclusion experience. Melisa also shared that group members of her MRHEP student have been extremely supportive during collaborative group work, and have seemed to raise their level of conscious, respectful, and flexible cooperation in response to this inclusion experience. 

  1. Next meeting plans [5 min]​

Sue reached out to Jenna Lamm, Coordinator of Disability Programs at CUNY, and Carrie Shockley who is also deeply involved in this work, and we are excited to report that they have agreed to attend our next FIG meeting to give updates on the CUNY Unlimited rollout, as well as to hear our feedback on specific priorities within that rollout. We will send out a doodle poll for the best time and date, but we are looking at the first week of December (week beginning 11/30) for this final FIG meeting of the semester.

Since our FIG is growing, we talked about how to build our network among various departments on campus, make contact with more chairs and peer mentors, and create more connections between the Students Unlimited Club, which aims to raise awareness of disability on campus, and the FIG.