April 21, 2008

Present: Dale McFadden (chair), Tom Busey, Deb Cohn, Nick Cullather, Sandy Dolby, Jeff Hart (recorder), Brian Steensland, and Maxine Watson.

The meeting began at 4:00pm. 

The committee had invited Martha Engstrom, Director of the Office of Disability Services for Students (DSS) at IU, and Michael Hamburger, Associate Dean of the Faculties, to attend this meeting to provide information about disability services on campus.  Engstrom and Hamburger arrived at 5:00pm.

Martha Engstrom provided the committee with some background information about the Division of Student Affairs, which supervised DSS and about 14 other units.  She discussed the efforts, mostly unsuccessful, by the Dean of Student Affairs to obtain additional staff and resources for DSS and of the recent improvements made possible by DSS’s move to the former offices of Parking Services in Franklin Hall Room 006.  She provided some statistics on the use of testing rooms in that space.  

DSS serves approximately 900 students annually, although only about 740 students currently were getting accommodations memoranda to take to instructors.  Engstrom was asked to compare staffing at IU relative to other major universities. Her staff of 4 compared very unfavorably to staffing at Purdue (10) and Michigan State (12), for example, where similar numbers of or fewer students were being served. 

Mike Hamburger provided the committee with information about training of graduate students and faculty.  Not much was currently being done to inform instructors about how to deal with students with disabilities.  Most AI training was done at the departmental level.  He recommended that the committee consult with Frank Epperson of University Human Resources about office accommodation for staff and Julie Knost, Director of the University Office of Affirmative Action, for information about legal compliance issues.

One committee member asked about increases in the number of students being served. Engstrom said that in 1999 approximately 400 students were provided services.  The number had more than doubled since then.  There were pronounced changes in the representation of disability types over the years as the population of students with disabilities grew.  Initially, most disabled students had physical disabilities, but in the early 1990s there was an increase in the number of students with learning disabilities.  This was followed by an increase in the number of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), which was followed in turn by a smaller increase in the number of students with psychiatric diagnoses.  In recent years, Engstrom report that her office was assisting more students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.  She promised to provide written comments on a report on disabilities written by a member of the committee.

After a brief discussion of possible future agenda items, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00pm.

Jeff Hart, Recorder

Questions or comments regarding the minutes and actions of the College Policy Committee may be addressed to its Chair, Dale McFadden. Past minutes and College Policy Statements can be found at the CPC web page.