Provost hopefuls should focus on students with disabilities

Editor,

To the candidates for UNM Provost: I am writing to you as a student with a disability — in this case, spinal cord injury.
I would like to know what you are going to do about the lack of access at UNM for students with disabilities.

I have faced quite a bit of what may be fairly characterized as extreme discrimination at UNM. Among the many incidents I have faced are: having my accessible chair removed from the classroom literally as I sat in it.

The chair was described in what one would think would have been sufficient language as a required support in an agreement between UNM Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) and the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. But unfortunately, in the absence of effective training for inclusion, and in a culture of hostility against individuals with disabilities, the language that we also speak may be just another barrier that produces even more acrimony.

In the UNM Fine Arts Department, I had virtually no access up to some of the kilns because of piles of junk that obstructed access. I also had no access to the damp room because student work was piled on the floor, preventing my entry.
The professor in the class harassed me the entire semester — never at any time allowing access or even complying with requested supports as specified in a “mediation session,” at which UNM ARC Director Joan Green and UNM Attorney Patty Bluett were present.

Please note: in the mediation session the professor falsely accused me of posting threatening notes on the classroom door. I never at any time put any notes of any kind on the classroom door.

UNM has a history of poor performance with regard to the overall delivery of services and support for students with disabilities. Those of us who dare to bring up the issue in any way are penalized academically and criminalized by professors and staff. And the costs, financial and otherwise, are really quite extreme.
Some years ago, I wrote a letter in reply to a piece penned by then-Provost Reed Dasenbrock titled “UNM Aggressively Courts the Best and the Brightest” that was published in the Albuquerque Journal. In that piece, Dasenbrock never at any time mentioned how UNM programs would address the needs of highly qualified students with disabilities. In my letter titled “Best and Brightest Can’t Omit Disabled,” I asked Dasenbrock how he would increase diversity by including students with disabilities in his considerations.

How will you, when you are selected as UNM Provost, provide increased access for students with disabilities at UNM? How will you lobby for support for equity and inclusion in Santa Fe to bring about improved funding for UNM ARC? How will you build effective, long-range planning for students with disabilities, which includes funded training for UNM faculty and staff in equity and inclusion? How will you “effectively” decrease the climate of hostility toward the disabled that prevails at UNM?

Frank Martin
UNM student