E-Notes
DRC (Disability Resource Center) Electronic Advising Update
April 2007
Welcome! The DRC Electronic Advising Update is designed to keep you informed of important deadlines and to alert you to programs and resources that may be of interest to you. We will try to keep these publications as brief as possible. We hope that you will find it to be a useful tool to keep your quarter running smoothly.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Part Time Program Forms Due Date
Service Request Forms Due
Tutor Sign Ups
Time Management Workshop
Join A Virtual Focus Group:
For Americans w/ a disability pursuing a career in the arts
U.N. Pact on Disabled Rights Signed
Part Time Program Forms are due to the Registrars Office by Monday, April 23, 2007. If you are enrolled as a full time student and are considering taking 10 or less units this quarter you need to submit a Part Time Form to the Registrars office. The deadline is April 23rd in order to receive partial reimbursement of your tuition. The Part-Time Program forms are available at the DRC along with the form required by the Registrar. Our office hours are 9-12 and 1-4 Monday through Friday except holidays.
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Reminder: If you are in need of accommodations this quarter please complete a Service Request Form within the first two weeks of the quarter. You may come by our office or fill one out online. Most of you have completed the Information Sheet for the year so you may request your services online. Please go to our web site at http://www2.ucsc.edu/drc click on Current DRC Students, click on Request Services. You may pick up your packet of paperwork two days after submitting your online Service Request Form.
Tutor sign-ups: You can now sign up for Writing or Subject tutoring sessions on-line at https://eop-apps.ucsc.edu/OTSS/tutorsignup/ Learning Support Services offers Subject tutoring in courses such as Math, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Physics, Psychology, Sociology and many more!
Sign-ups begin on Thursday, April 12th and will remain open until Friday, May 25th. If you anticipate that you will need a tutor this quarter we suggest that you sign up early. Please contact Learning Support Services at 459-4333, or go by their office at the Academic Resources Center (ARCenter) if you need assistance with the on-line tutor sign-up system.
**Please note there have been changes to the tutoring system. All EOP, DRC, and first-year transfer and reentry students will be automatically eligible for one hour of group tutoring per week for all courses not supported by MSI. You will be able to sign up through the On-Line Tutor Sign-Up System as you have done in the past. If you need additional tutoring you will need an authorization form for additional tutoring hours completed by your DRC coordinator. Please contact your DRC Coordinator either by appointment, email or phone. Students will need to bring this signed form to the LSS office in the ARC.
How do I sign up for tutoring?
You can access the tutor sign-up registration and sign-in page at https://eop-apps.ucsc.edu/OTSS/tutorsignup/. You will need your Student ID and Date of Birth in order to register and access the system.
Time Management Workshop
Time Management Workshop at the
Disability Resource Center
Discover practical strategies for managing your busy schedule
Location: DRC Office
146 Hahn Building
Date: Tuesday, April 17th
Time: 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Please R.S.V.P. to:
drc@ucsc.edu
831-459-2089
Learn to plan your time,
then work your plan!
Note: Bring your course syllabi so you can make your individualized study plan.
Join A Virtual Focus Group
On behalf of the University of Illinois at Chicago:
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT FREELY TO ALL
WHO MAY BE INTERESTED:
If you are an American with a disability pursuing a primary career in the arts, or if you have been deeply involved in supporting careers in the arts for people with disabilities:
JOIN A "VIRTUAL FOCUS GROUP" ON THIS IMPORTANT TOPIC!
WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
We are conducting a research project based at the University of Illinois at Chicago called,
"Experiences of Individuals with Disabilities Pursuing Careers in the Arts: Creating a National Portrait" funded by the National Endowment forthe Arts (PS 04-01). We are gathering data bearing on two primary research questions:
1. What are the barriers and facilitators
mediating access to careers in the arts for
Americans with disabilities?
2. What are the social, personal, and economic
outcomes of training and work in the arts for
Americans with disabilities?
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
Next month, we will open a 6-week e-mail
discussion forum focusing on one question per
week regarding careers in the arts for Americans
with disabilities.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
You are eligible to participate in our "virtual
focus group" if you are age 18 or over AND you
are at least ONE of the following:
a disabled or non-disabled resident of the U.S. with intensive involvement or experience in arts careers and disability. A U.S. resident with a disability working in or pursuing careers involving the arts (e.g., arts training, administration, program development), or
a career artist with a disability in the U.S.
HOW TO JOIN:
For more information about participating, contact:
Terri Thrower
Graduate Research Assistant
tthrow1@uic.edu
Contact Ms. Thrower as soon as possible because the enrollment deadline is April 6, and the virtual focus group begins on April 16.
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS: The researchers conducting this study are Carol J. Gill, Ph.D. and Carrie Sandahl, Ph.D. If you have questions, you may contact the
researchers at:
University of Illinois at Chicago (MC 626)
(312) 355-0550 v
1640 W. Roosevelt Road, Room 236
(312) 996-1233 TTY
Chicago, IL 60608
(312) 996-0885 fax
E-mail: cg16@uic.edu
U.N. Pact on disabled rights signed:
UNITED NATIONS - In what the U.N. human rights chief called an unprecedented show of support to empower the physically and mentally impaired, 80 countries signed a U.N. convention enshrining the rights of the world's 650 million disabled. The United Nations held a ceremony Friday on the first day the convention opened for signatures and not only did 80 countries and a representative of the European Union signed it but Jamaica announced that it had also ratified the convention. That means only 19 more ratifications are needed before the convention comes into force, and speaker after speaker urged speedy approval.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour announced the huge level of support at a news conference afterward.
"It's certainly unprecedented in terms of support for a human rights instrument, but it's apparently setting records for the signature of any convention in the United Nations," she said.
The convention is a blueprint to end discrimination and exclusion of the physically and mentally disabled in education, jobs, and everyday life. It requires countries to guarantee freedom from exploitation and abuse for the disabled, while protecting rights they already have — such as voting rights for the blind and wheelchair-accessible buildings.
The convention guarantees that the disabled have the inherent right to life on an equal basis with the able-bodied and requires countries to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantee equal legal protection. Countries must also ensure the equal right of the disabled to own and inherit property, to control their financial affairs, and to privacy over their personal lives.
The U.N. General Assembly adopted the 32-page convention by consensus in December, culminating a campaign spearheaded by disability rights activists and the governments of New Zealand, Ecuador and Mexico.
"We would not be here today without the sustained efforts of the disability community," Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said at Friday's ceremony.
"In three short years, the convention went from dream to reality," she said. "On its adoption by the General Assembly late last year, it became the first human rights treaty of the 21st century, and the fastest negotiated international human rights instrument in history."
Arbour said "it's very appropriate" that the first treaty of the new century "targets a community that has been so marginalized for so long" and that it focuses on rights — not just social welfare and programs to meet the needs of the disabled.
She called the convention "a first step" in empowering the disabled, stressing that once it comes into force governments will have to enact legislation and change practices to ensure the rights of the disabled.
Yannis Vardakastanis, representing the International Disability Caucus which was in the forefront of the campaign for the convention, congratulated the 80 countries that signed "this unprecedented convention."
He said it represents "a very drastic" shift in the way the international community looks at disabilities.
"The 650 million persons with disabilities around the world expect and anticipate that this convention will change the real living conditions, that this convention will take away the discrimination, the exclusion, and all the obstacles that people with disabilities are faced with in their daily lives," Vardakastanis said.
According to the latest U.N. figures, about 10 percent of the world's population, or 650 million people, live with a disability and the number is increasing with population growth. The disabled constitute the world's largest minority, and 80 percent live in developing countries, many in poverty.
The convention advocates keeping the disabled in their communities rather than removing them and educating them separately as many countries do.
