CUNY Unlimited 3rd Meeting, Spring 2023

Our final FIG of the Spring 2023 semester was memorable for a number of reasons. Dr. Stella Woodroffe Director of Accessibility is retiring from KCC after 15 years of service. Stella gave an overview of how accessibility/ inclusion had changed and progressed over her time at KCC. It should be noted that this FIG is part of that change in culture at KCC!

Various updates, and fun tributes were given to Dr. Woodroffe! And Dr Ingrid Geier a Fulbright Scholar in Residence applicant from Salzburg University was a guest. Ingrid hopes if successful be a Fulbright scholar at KCC in the Spring of 2025.

Prof. Esposito also reported on continuing working with statewide officials on creating a line for adults who do not have a high school diploma to work in educational settings. Prof. Esposito reported on Chris Treiber Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer of the InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, Inc. (IAC), visiting her EDC 4000 course’s field site and observed a MRHEP student Michael Lettman. He was duly impressed commenting that Michael was part of the class community.  The conversation now continues with Christopher Suriano is the Assistant Commissioner of Special Education at New York State Education Department (NYSED) Watch this space!

Finally, a presentation was given by Michael Lettman who is graduating from the Melissa Riggio Program this spring and is the first of that program to have completed a practicum course in the Education Program!

It was definitely a FIG to remember! Enjoy the recording below:

We had 12 people join us for a successful 2nd meeting of our FIG. Below are notes from each portion of the agenda.

1. News from FIG members

-Lisa’s updates on working to change NY State Law to include educators without HS diplomas:

-Lisa and Michael on education fieldwork

Chris Trieber reached out to a couple of the NY Regents about moving forward with creating a position for students without a HS diploma to work in education. Chris may ask to speak to Michael or Evelynn or the supervisors of the building when he visits Michael’s field site soon. There are 3- and 4-year-olds there at the Jones Snow Pre-K center, many of whom have disabilities. He will reach out to Ms. Ahmed from the DOE and State Ed. Michael offers thought-provoking questions in the class, and Lisa encourages him to continue. Michael shared that he is enjoying observing the children and learning a lot. Learning to connect with the children – his mentor is connecting well with them. He wonders if he will every work with children again like he did in his old job.

-Sue’s updates on the Inclusion in Higher Ed advocacy international group

Ceri Edwards Hawthorne visited University of Winchester with her non-integrated students and this went well! Ceri’s students have complex disabilities so this is an unusual inclusion moment at a University. This was exciting news and felt empowering to the students be at a University. The IHE also decided to do grassroots networking rather than becoming an official charity. Talking to 1-2 people and inviting them to the IHE (and perhaps or FIG can do similarly). Sue published an article too – congratulations!

-Carrie’s updates on CUNY Unlimited and her promotion (congrats Carrie!)

Carrie was promoted to Interim University Assistant Dean (hoping I got that right), with a Disability and Inclusion focus. She will have time to focus on CUNY Unlimited. The pilot year at Hostos (Kensaku knows as well), worked out issues with coding in CUNY First – registered in a different way that allows them to do their program. A student handbook has been developed for the Unlimited program! Also, a faculty handbook has been developed! [we should get these; Rushika – D75 advocate on adjustments, alterations, accommodations, and appropriate assessment measures for that class]. Still working on co- and extra- curricular activities and how this fits in to greater involvement in campus life. Onboarding and registering earlier to give faculty more of a heads up. Mariko Sekita is working on job development and advocacy at Hostos – dream jobs, as well as nuts and bolts of career fairs, job descriptions, debriefing on job-related experiences. We should engage the LEADS team for later year students, so they can focus on early year students. Queensboro (Brian Mitra – Student Affairs with Hostos person) will start Melissa Riggio brand new in Fall – AHRC has a person assigned to that campus. The State Budget was not the money CUNY was hoping for, will continue to explore to find the resources at KCC (to support admin goals and formalize to be consistent with marketing across the University).

Stella: $13 million was the ask statewide, got 2 million instead (shared across state – 270k for CUNY, based on enrollment in Disability Services relative to rest of state, in which we are lower in the city it seems…). Last year we got a bump in LEADS money, which could connect to Unlimited in a way (hidden gems). Partners in Albany are looking through the budget now. 30-year stagnancy in Disability Services funding at state level (got 2 million out of 15 after 3 years of advocacy, then another 2 million this year).

Sue: Looking for funds for part-time admin (to start). Hostos identified a person and brought them on in that role, and could at that time (but not a permanent line, will become part of AAS office?). Foundation interest (employment outcomes) and public-private partnerships but nothing concrete in terms of donations or grants. Don’t know Hostos costs. With fringe, costs of PT admin = $60k max. KCC looking for multi-year commitment (x5 for all the campuses). TAP funding – without additional costs, these students could be TAP eligible to defray some costs of the students. For students who are not Pell eligible, JFK Jr. Institute might have some funds to cover (year 1).

2. Vision for the FIG

-Potential broadening FIG (UDL, advocacy) while still committed to CUNY Unlimited work

-FIG name change and outreach

We can go into this more next meeting, as we were running short on time. One idea that emerged was the thought of doing a workshop (a FIG meeting that is outward facing) to share information about M. Riggio with broader community. This could be a good outreach event to share our vision as well. We also raised the possibility of the video to promote MRHEP / CUNY Unlimited that we had discussed a while back with Margot and Carol. Carol said the script was submitted to the fellow KCC faculty member that Margot has worked with before. This would make a great kickoff for our public facing events at some point, if it is possible to produce and film this short video.

Finally, we discussed a possible hybrid meeting for our last FIG in early June to celebrate Stella and Michael’s time at KCC!

Our first Spring 2022 Cuny Unlimited meeting included 16 participants: Melissa Riggio students, mentors and staff, KCC faculty, alumni and staff.

The meeting began with Margot Cole remembering and honoring the life of Judy Heumann who had recently passed. Judy was an inspiring, dynamic and personable disability activist instrumental in the passing of the ADA Act and that had influenced all our lives for the better. May she rest in peace.

We followed with news from the ground at KCC in particular from Michael Lettman, his mentor and Prof. Lisa Esposito. Michael is the first MRHEP student to audit a field course. Finger printing was undertaken and Michael will be going to his field placement an early childhood center for the first time the week of March 20th.

Requests were asked of the MRHEP staff to make sure mentors are in contact with the professors at the beginning of the semester. A discussion then followed as to CUNY Unlimited roll out at KCC being put on hold and a conversation ensued regarding obtaining the specifics of the funds and job description of the coordinator that will be needed.

Lastly there was a brief discussion about whether to change the title of the FIG to include all inclusion at KCC. Details of the upcoming KCC Disability Day on April 4th was given and a shout out for the Reel Abilities Film Festival upcoming as well as the Pace University Disability Film Festival in Manhattan on Wed, 29th March.