Regional Consortia
Across New York State, several consortia have been established to provide opportunities for campus disability service providers and other interested stakeholders to provide information and support to each other on a regional basis. Members of consortia can include disasbility service professionals from SUNY, CUNY, independent/private, and proprietary post-secondary institutions, high school counselors, psychologists, and relevant organizations, such as the Learning Disability Association. Some groups are more formal in structure and meet on a regular basis, while others are less formal and/or meet only occasionally. The following information has been provided by members of the regional consortia as of Fall 2007.
The WNY Collegiate Consortium of Disability Advocates (CCDA) serves Western NY from PA to Canada and east to Rochester. They meet monthly, usually the 2nd Thursday of the month. Kathy Hoffman (hoffman@ecc.edu) is Chair and contact. Their web site is: http://ccdanet.org/
College Night for students with disabilities is Thursday, October 25. They are presenting at both the NY Counseling Association conference in Rochester on October 26 and Kathy is presenting at the Deaf Community Accommodation Network conference on October 16. We meet at the Learning Disability Association of WNY 2555 Elmwood Ave in Kenmore unless otherwise stated. College camp is June 30-July 3, 2008. College camp is a four day transition program for high school students with disabilities who are entering their senior year of high school and who are college appropriate. Since the camp is being funded by the Model Transition Project (MTP) for Erie 1 BOCES priority will be given to students from the 5 Cheektowaga high schools. Registration materials will be available in February or March 2008.
The Rochester Area College Consortium on Disability Advocates covers from Genesee Community College on the west (which overlaps slightly with the Western consortium) to Finger Lakes Community College on the east and from Lake Ontario down to the NY/Penn border. They meet the second Wednesday of every month from September through June at 9:00 AM at either one of the colleges/agencies involved or at the Bagel Bin cafe in Brighton (Rochester). Contact: Tabitha Buggie-Hunt (tbuggieh@geneseo.edu)
The consortium conducts trainings and has speakers for some meetings. They spend some time going into High Schools to make presentations on transition issues. They have two "College Night" activities during the year -- one in the fall and one in the spring --where they talk with parents and high school students. Every two years they host a day-long workshop in May on different issues that affect transition.
The Postsecondary Disability Consortium of Central New York meets four times a year at member sites. The PDCCNY covers from Watertown to Binghamton, Geneva to Schenectady. The group created a web site called "Transition to College," found at http://www.pdccny.org. To be added to the consortium's electronic mailing list, contact Michele Fish (mdf6@cornell.edu).
The Post-Secondary Disability Consortium of Central New York is an organization of post-secondary service providers committed to enhancing campus access for students with disabilities. The collective goals of this group are to share ideas and information, to promote further understanding and equity relative to disability issues, and to plan and implement strategies that will encourage policy changes and outcomes for the post-secondary students that we serve.
The Hudson Mohawk Disability Specialists group, comprised of institutions in the capitol region, is in the process of reorganizing. For information, please contact Carolyn Malloch at SUNY Albany (cmalloch@uamail.albany.edu; 518-442-5490).
The DSN/NY (Disabled Student Network/New York) is a consortium in the New York metro area of public and private/independent colleges and university disability service offices. Susan Quinby at Barnard(squinby@barnard.edu), is the head of the steering committee. You may also request additional information from the SUNY representative, Liz Holly Mortensen at the Fashion Institute of Technology (Elizabeth_mortensen@fitnyc.edu).
Westchester County Colleges are in the process of forming a consortium. Contact Jean Baldassare, Manhattanville College at baldassarej@mville.edu, telephone 914-323-7127.