Weekly News Update From the National Center for College Students with Disabilities Last Week's Top News Stories about Disability and Higher Education April 23-29, 2023 It's the last week to give us feedback about NCCSD News Updates with a quick three-question eval!<https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LVWTWSL> * Graduation is coming soon! Columbia University student Leslie Zukor created Columbia University's first-ever Disability Affinity Graduation<https://news.columbia.edu/news/honoring-achievements-columbia-students-disabilities> celebration, and California Polytechnic State University is hosting "cultural commencements"<https://campusreform.org/article?id=22507> that include a disability celebration. * A Yale News article discusses whether or not students should disclose mental health struggles<http://features.yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/04/25/up-close-pressure-to-project-growth/> in their college essays; Yale has a non-discrimination policy, but some students are questioning whether admission officers may use legal ways around it. * While recovering from a traumatic brain injury, Nirali Chauhan used pretend baking as exercise<https://www.dailyherald.com/entlife/20230501/long-road-to-recovery-leads-barrington-high-school-alum-to-baking-show-tent>. Now the University of Illinois College of Medicine student is one of nine contestants on The Great American Baking Show. * The US Dept. of Education released a new report<https://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-04/beyond-the-box.pdf> with guidance for campuses serving current or previously incarcerated students, recommending provision of mental health services, assistance getting documentation and paperwork, and the same services on-campus students receive. * With little media attention, North Dakota is the first to pass an anti-DEI law<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/04/27/north-dakota-quietly-enacts-first-anti-dei-law?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4b8b3c930f-DNU_2021_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4b8b3c930f-225808461&mc_cid=4b8b3c930f&mc_eid=d5645fe552> for higher education, prohibiting diversity and DEI work, but still allowing trainings about federal and state non-discrimination laws [e.g., the ADA] * Gloriann Gurule is from a family of truckers<https://www.cnm.edu/news/meet-the-first-deaf-student-to-graduate-from-cnm-ingenuity2019s-cdl-program>, and she's the first Deaf graduate of the trucking program at Central New Mexico Community College. * Students set up an Equal Access and Disability Rights Commission at Brigham Young University<https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2023/05/01/student-led-commission-at-byu-advocated-for-accessibility-created-framework-for-other-campuses/>, using human rights truth commissions as a model, collecting statements, interviewing campus members experiencing disability discrimination, and making recommendations to BYU. * Psychological counselors are embedded in Virginia Tech's dorms<https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-universitys-new-approach-to-student-mental-health-put-therapists-in-the-dorms?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_6676389_nl_Academe-Today_date_20230424&cid=at&source=ams&sourceid=>, taking pressure off RAs and increasing availability for students. * A UK lecturer at Coleg Gwent beauty school learned British Sign Language<https://nation.cymru/news/beauty-lecturer-learns-bsl-to-support-deaf-student/> for the school's first Deaf student, and it led to BSL courses, Deaf services, and 63 Deaf and hard-of-hearing students. * Disabled scholars in Canada are experiencing ableist "ad hoc" agreements<https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/ableism-in-the-academy/> and department-level funding to get accommodations, creating a lack of access and equity. * Students at Washington University are frustrated that the campus is compliant with the ADA, but still inaccessible,<https://www.studlife.com/scene/2023/04/26/danforth-campus-ada-compliant-but-still-not-accessible> while Connecticut College students are feeling the same way<https://thecollegevoice.org/2023/04/26/student-rights-and-the-ada-at-connecticut-college/>. * Information about assistance animals, service animals, and emotional support animals<https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/what-colleges-and-universities-need-to-4479810/> in higher education is part of a new blog series at JD Supra. * A few professors were in the media for their writing about disability: * Poet Ann Wallace (a cancer survivor with MS and long COVID) is the new poet laureate of Jersey City<https://drew.edu/stories/2023/04/24/writersdrew-welcomes-poet-ann-e-wallace-c92/> * Diablo Valley College professor Adam Bessie has written a graphic novel<https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/think-college-launches-public-awareness-200000563.html> about community colleges during COVID and his experiences doing remote teaching while dealing with a brain tumor * An interview with Stephanie Kerschbaum<https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/stephanie-kerschbaums-new-book-explores-signs-of-disability/> explores disability, diversity, and disclosure * University of Kansas professors Teri Finneman and Erika Pribanic-Smith have a new book about journalism history<https://today.ku.edu/2023/04/24/new-book-details-social-justice-activism-american-journalism-history> and social justice, including the disability rights movement Click here to subscribe to NCCSD Weekly News Updates and other announcements<http://ahead-listserve.org/mailman/listinfo/DREAM_ahead-listserve.org>. 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