Minutes
UCLA COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I. Introduction & Quorum
Dr. Tina Arora, Mark Ackerman, Tina Arora, Donna Bryan, Patrick Burke, Mike Clark, Nick Corso, Stephanie Fisher, Eileen Fowler, Thomas Griffin, Jamie Hoffman, Deidre Hollingsworth, Susan Drange Lee, Jim McGlynn, Adrienne Malka, Wendy Motch, Kathy Molini, Lisa Muller, Andrew Tai, Alex Stavchanski, Laura Sobchick, Bob Werle, Karen Henderson-Winge
Excused: Bert Cueva, Joy Chantarasompoth
II.Minutes
Corrections, third page under Compositions of the Committee: should be - three graduate students, three undergraduate students, and two faculty members.
Didi Hollingsworth discussed the changed requirements for a quorum, and stated that the new requirement requires only a majority of current members for a quorum, and no provisions regarding which groups must be represented. She acknowledged that the old requirements made it very difficult to hold a vote, but suggested a way to ensure some balanced representation in the quorum.
Her argument was the categories of membership on UCOD--faculty, staff, students, community members and alumni--fall into 3 larger groups. These are (1) employees of UCLA (6 total faculty and staff), (2) students (6 total), and (3) outside members (alumni & comm. reps, 6 total). With an equal number of members in each of these three larger groups, she believes a quorum should require at least ONE representative of each of these three groups. This will not prevent timely votes, but it does prevent major issues from being voted on at times when student representatives may be unavailable, such as during the summer. She added that one of her interests in UCOD is student representation and outside representation in any important business. She went on to say that as far as she can tell, there are always some members of faculty or staff that are in attendance to represent their own views and interests.
In summary, she proposed these changes at the May meeting and reiterating her request to have them seriously considered and discussed before a vote is held on the bylaws.
Terminating a member - The statement was made that the committee has not clarified exactly how they are going to remove a member and that the draft Bylaws indicated that, a member be removed by a two-thirds vote. The Chair mentioned that they would revert to the language in the original by-laws, “that a member may be terminated through resignation and/or for failure to attend three consecutive meetings without reasonable justification”.
Agenda – Re-cap DFEH presentation May 12, 2009 the presentation by Dr. Phyllis Cheng celebrating their 50th anniversary, was on the historical perspective. The department of Fair Employment and Housing is California’s civil rights agency, which has the responsibility for enforcing FEHA. The department investigates, conciliates and prosecutes discrimination complaints. Over the years, the department has steadfastly worked to redress civil rights violations faced by hundreds of thousands of Californians where they live and work. Numerous decisions from the trial courts to the United States Supreme Court have affirmed the broad reach of the FEHA. Because of the Act, most employers and housing providers have changed their business practices to create a more level playing field for all Californians.
Wendy Motch explained that the DFEH expects an individual to exhaust all of the resources they have at hand prior to filing a complaint; she added that they would go back to the business and the university to see what is in place to address those types of concerns. She went on to say that UCLA has in place the Office of for Students with Disabilities, ADA/504 Compliance Office and the of Dean’s Office.
If somebody exhausted all of the internal resources then the DFEH is the resource someone could pursue.
UCOD Roster
Michael Clark distributed the updated UCOD Roster and encourages everyone to check the website to see if the information inputted is correct and if any change needed to contact Patrick Burke burke@ucla.edu or Andrew Tai adtai@ats.ucla.edu
Faculty Outreach
Stephanie Fisher the chair of the sub committee mentioned that their focus has been on looking at ways they can further address issues by students who feel that they have not gotten the accommodation needed, in terms of continuing their academic career. One of the issues addressed, was “where does a student turn legally”.
She went on to say that they have accomplished most of the goals set forth and would like to reinforce the recommendation that faculty and TA’s receive training in the area of accommodation. In addition, the sub-committee requests a basic plan of action from Monroe Gorden and the ADA/504 Compliance Office that would be in accordance with this recommended education outreach plan.
The subcommittee would like the full committee to revisit the status and the progression, as in the past, that was not re-addressed, and it fell off the radar. Their preliminary suggestion is a three-month interval, after receiving the plan of action.
Stephanie mentioned that they are considering three questions when revisiting the status: (1) what are the educational and outreach intervention that took place and how will it result in positive changes, and a way to measure it. (2) Whether the end result is meeting the goals of student and faculty, and to keep checking on a quarterly basis. (3) If it seems there is no progress, revisit as a full committee and re-appoint a new sub-committee. She added that their intention is to keep these recommendations moving forward and consider ways of encouraging Academics in a leadership roll and therefore engaging the Academic Senate on these issues if need be.
Wendy added that they are in the process of drafting a letter that will be going out to all faculty and TA’s in the fall regarding accommodation in the classroom and their responsibility, relating to UC policy and the law. She added that few faculty members take advantage of the trainings that are in place and everybody agreed that a mandatory training was not possible.
A suggestion was made to add a section to the letter sent to faculty & TA’s that would include verbiage about classroom accommodations for use in their syllabus, so that students would be aware that there are resources to address these issues. An additional suggestion was made to send this information to the Graduate Student Association as a means to assure the information is delivered to TA’s. Discussion included involvement of Academic Personnel to disseminate information to all faculty and TA’s.
During the undergraduate and graduate student orientation, making information available to student is very critical and the committee has collaborated work with the OSD to be at the orientation fair.
It was recommended that the UCOD request updates from ADA/504 Office at the November 2009 meeting regarding progress on their educational outreach efforts. It was further agreed that the Faculty Outreach Committee has completed its work and can presently be retired with the understanding that it can be reconvened in the future based on need.
Communications Subcommittee
Here is an update of the four key areas the committee is actively working. No report was made for the May meeting, which was truncated due to the special guest, Phyllis Cheng.
No subcommittee meeting was held this past month, though some items of business were conducted via email.
1. Annual Report
Discussion: Brief discussion with Wendy/Adrienne about proper distribution of final report - need to ask general committee for recommendations, as well as verifying the reporting structure before actual distribution. In addition, discussion on the frequency of such a report ( a 2 year reporting window or an annual reporting window).
Action items: The report is in a completed state. Due to the bylaws discussion, and the verification of the higher reporting structure, distribution was not yet addressed. The Communications Committee is prepared to send email and/or hard copies of the report to these entities once these issues are resolved. As the 2008-2009 period closes, the main committee needs to agree on the frequency of such a report. In addition, should such reporting be indicated in the bylaws?
2. Website
- no specific discussion this past month, but will be developing a web submission/content change policy, the review of web "metrics" being collected, and the possible use of other calendar update tools/software being made available to campus.
Action items:
- links had been made for the special May guest Phyllis Cheng.
- Editing changes proposed by Michael Clark to the COD roster online were completed.
- Continued use of Google Analytics (web traffic) for more data capture with hopes for a report this summer for the main committee.
3. Communications Outreach
Discussion:
Activities related to the visit of our special Guest Phyllis Cheng.
Action items:
- Follow-up before the May meeting to the campus calendar, Student Media (Daily Bruin, UCLA Radio, others) for promotion and coverage of the special meeting.
- adding of links to UCOD website for the event.
- Assisted in the formatting of a certificate of appreciate for our special guest.
- Working on getting a new profile subject among them may be the Program Mgr Laurie Siedelman of the "Pathways" project. For those unfamiliar, "Pathway is two-year certificate program at UCLA Extension specially designed for young adults with intellectual disabilities." The Pathways program overall was last profiled in UCLA today in 2007.
4. Internal Committee Structure
The core group of the communication committee is interested in building its ranks with interested members whose specific committee activities can support the overall mission and goals of the general UCOD. Any creative or technical support for these endeavors is welcome. Our ability to pursue projects will be determined by the number and quality of our members.
Nominations for the 09/10 Leadership
When nominated for the positions, Adrienne & Wendy had three main goals for the up coming year. The first was to have the entire member positions filled, the second goal was to look at the bylaws and the third was to continue the activity in program outreach.
Adrienne Malka has agreed to be considered for another term as Co-Chair, Stephanie Fisher expressed interest in serving as Co-Chair, Lisa Mueller has expressed interest in the Vice-Chair position and Wendy has agreed to be considered for 2nd Vice-Chair.
The following nominations will be made at the July 14 meeting followed by a vote.
Wendy and Adrienne are more than happy, to meet one on one to talk about the logistics with anyone who is interested to serve on the committee.
By-Laws - Adrienne & Wendy met with the ADA/ 504 Compliance officer, the Office for Faculty Development and Diversity, Vice Provost Becerra and Vice Chancellor Montero, to follow-up on the bylaws and the reporting structure.
In the discussion regarding the budget, the statement was made that the ADA Office is paying for the meeting room, the captioner service and parking for the community representatives. According to Monroe Gorden UCOD does not have a budget and the cost of operation is about $10,000 per year which cannot be guaranteed
The committee discussed how historically UCOD was considered to have a budget and continued its discussion on how could things be done differently to help reduce some of the expenditures. Three suggestions, which emerged, were (1) to have the meeting in a different locations, (2) parking only for special guest and (3) the captioning service by request only.
The most significant budget related issues which arose are 1. to have a stable accessible meeting location with convenient parking, particularly for those with mobility challenges; 2. given all the concessions and cost savings to provide parking spaces for community representatives who volunteer to come on to campus and participate in the UCOD; 3. to have microphones available for speech and hearing-impaired participants; 4. To have the captioner as needed
Wendy Motch asked members to email Sylvia Moguel their suggestions at smoguel@saonet.ucla.edu and the feedback received from the committee will be shared with Monroe, and “hopefully” the best decision in accommodating the requests will be put into consideration.
Everybody received a sample ballot and instructions for voting on the by-laws via email. At the July meeting, voting members will receive an envelope with the official ballot and can vote in person at the meeting. Voting members can also vote by email, which will be forwarded for those who would like to vote electronically. Voting members received a copy of the proposed by-laws as well as a copy of the current official by-laws.
III. Announcements
Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
Next Meeting: Tuesday July 14, 2009 at the Faculty Center - Hacienda Room
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