Recent Developments at CWU

Glenn wrote:

There have been some new developments since I last posted, but I have been caught up in finals and the end-of-quarter projects and things going on. My family was here from December 6-10, so I was busy during that time too.

I had a meeting with Charlotte Tullos on November 21, 2008. It was the Friday before the week we had our Thanksgiving break. The first thing she says is that she needed to hear from me and find out what I needed or wanted.

One of my advocates was able to attend this meeting, and I cannot say enough about what a wonderful presence she was to have along. She really made a connection with Charlotte and really made some good points that Charlotte seemed to get. I am very grateful for her help in this situation.

We got it hammered down to four different points for next quarter—

• Experienced transcribers working in teams in my IT 468 class. This is a lab class and most of the time lab classes are harder to follow along because there is lots of information presented in many different ways, and it’s harder to follow along as it is being demonstrated. A team is necessary because it is a 400-level course and also because classes are 100 minutes long. This is really two points in one: experienced transcribers and teams because neither of these are what I had during the Fall 2008 quarter.
• A tutor to help me out (if needed) in IT 468.
• An experienced transcriber working solo in my IT 461 class. This is not a lab class and is a 50-minute class, so I think that an experienced transcriber working solo would be appropriate.

Charlotte seemed to “get it” finally, but I am wondering about this. The time for an epiphany is long overdue in my opinion. I find it hard to believe that Charlotte hasn’t heard from many others about what is needed to provide effective and appropriate accommodations to deaf/HOH students who need these services to reach their potential as students.

I named a couple of names for experienced transcribers just so that Charlotte would have no doubts or misunderstandings about what I was requesting. She responded that Ian told her that these folks didn’t want to participate. Ian is some type of assistant director at DSS, but he really has no expertise in this area, and I have no idea why he is trying to do something like this. Telling Charlotte that these folks didn’t want to participate was at the very least misleading. At the worst, it was an outright lie. I know for a fact that these people DO want to participate, but they were never offered appropriate contracts by the school. It’s not like they are requesting anything that is out of line with what is offered at other schools in this state. These people are very ethical people who would not stoop to ripping off the school just because they think they can. What they wanted was something that was consistent with their value as professionals. What they were offered by DSS (Ian and others) was an insult.

I understand that Charlotte has told a couple of people in DSS what is needed for my classes next quarter. As far as I can see, there has been very little action taken to retain the folks that I named. There has been an initial contact sent out, and a response from the two people about what it would take for them to work at CWU again. The ball is in DSS court, but they seemingly haven’t done anything more. I wonder what they are waiting for…? These two folks are making commitments to work jobs in January. And because DSS is waiting until the last minute to make the necessary arrangements, there won’t be anyone available when they finally do get around to doing what is needed. I understand that Charlotte is aware of this inaction, and might be requesting some sort of verification that things are indeed being done in DSS to retain the necessary people.

I understand that Charlotte might feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of the problems here, and might feel the need to take small steps until the situation is really resolved. But that doesn’t really address why the problems are the size they are now. No matter what Charlotte does, I still think inaction by the administration allowed this situation to become what it is now—a much more complicated and difficult problem to resolve.

I am only registered for two classes next quarter. Right now, I am extremely reluctant to take on more classes. I am going to wait and see what happens before considering more classes. So far it’s just promises and I haven’t seen any tangibles.