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Matthew Paul

Instructor Fredrick Deboer

WRT 303, Public Writing, Section 1

7 March, 2011

Letter to the Editor

Dear President David M. Dooley,

Within the past semesters spanning from 2010 to 2011 there has been a significant

amount of talk and concern regarding individuals of the University of Rhode Island being

victims of culturally offensive acts. To be specific, the recent acts of defacing iconic images of

Dr Martin Luther King with a swastika, and hateful homophobic taunts at students from cars to

name a few (Dooley). The President of the University of Rhode Island released a Memorandum

to the community of which he is the President of in an effort to address these past events. The

Memorandum’s opening statement began with “The University of Rhode Island is a community

of discovery and learning composed of individuals who want to make a difference in their own

lives and the lives of their families, friends, and the broader communities in which we all live.”

(Dooley) These past events receive such a scale of reaction because of the size and scope of the

community that those events effect. There are individuals at this campus that are victim to

unnoticeable discrimination do to the small scale nature of their enrollment population. Disabled

people and to be more specific; visually impaired and blind students face discrimination on both

social and academic fronts without any efforts on the Universities behalf to resolve the issue.

It has been verbally stated to me by Pamela Roland the head of Disability services at the

University of Rhode Island that a 10-8 week time frame is needed to anticipate the following

semester’s books in an accessible format. In order to obtain a book list for a semesters worth of
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material in 8-10 weeks in advance, it is necessary to contact Professors directly. The University

bookstore doesn’t release the book information Professors have sent to them until a week or two

before classes start. Or, Professors don’t send the book information to the bookstore until a week

or two before the semester begins.

Disability services wishes: “As soon as you are registered for your courses please notify

Disability Services for Students that you will need to request adapted books. We will work with

you to notify your professors of the need for adapted books so as to facilitate the text selection

process with the URI Bookstore.” (Dougan). This process debilitates blind and visually impaired

students. This is discrimination because other students that aren’t disabled at the University

aren’t required to contact their next semester’s Professors this early. The task of communicating

and requesting Information/accommodations from 4-5 Professors while you are actively already

communicating and requesting the same thing from the current Professors is difficult. The deep

and personal connection that is needed for a sighted person to understand the needs of a visually

impaired person is not considered or respected with this new policy. It is simply not possible to

effectively communicate with 8-10 Professors while trying to accomplish a University level

degree.

The policy of requesting 8-10 weeks’ notice for class materials/books eliminates equal

opportunities for all students at the University of Rhode Island. By forcing an early commitment

requesting class materials several weeks before the semester starts the student is now obligated

and bound to constraints that are not shared with the rest of the University of Rhode Island

community. If several of my friends wish to take the same class, and they select this class 2

weeks before the semester starts, there is a huge professional student obligation in place that

would prevent me from sharing the same opportunities as them. I already tracked down all of my
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professors, all my books, time and effort into another avenue of my academic semester.

Switching a class for me, a visually impaired student is just about impossible. Under current

policy I would be wasting a Professor’s time, my time, disability services time, the URI

bookstores time, the publisher of the books time. I can’t do what every other student around me

is capable of because of a University policy.

I have never picked up a class in the first week of a semester after dropping a class. After

interviewing 5 students, all from separate academic majors at the University of Rhode Island this

is what I discovered: Student 1, 7-8 class drops and class pickups within the first week of a

semester over the duration of his education at URI, he is in his senior year and a German major

(student 1). Student 2, 1-2 class drops and pickups within the first week of the semester, he is a

nursing major and halfway through his junior year (Student 2). Student 3, 5-7 dropped classes at

the beginning of the semester in the first week, he is a junior halfway through his engineering

major (student 3). Student 4, 3 dropped classes in the first week and 3 added in the first week

over the course of his education at URI, he is a senior and majoring in journalism (student 4).

Lastly is student 5, she is a biology major, dropped 2 classes and picked up 2 in the first week

over the course of her attendance at URI, halfway through her junior year (student 5).

I am Matthew Paul. I am halfway through my junior year at the University of Rhode

Island. I have never added a class within the first week of school, I am visually impaired. I have

dropped 3 classes here to my memory during my time here. I would like to be treated like

everybody else. “They wound members of our community and undermine our efforts to build a

community where every member is welcomed and supported.” (Dooley) this was said by the

President of the University. I am wounded by the policy of URI. I want to be able to walk into

the bookstore when everyone else does, get my books when they do, and have them ready within
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the first week. All other students at the University of Rhode Island with sight have the

opportunity to change classes if they want, to without contacting every Professor when making

their decisions. I would like to be included with them. I would like the support of my University.

I would like to be welcomed by disability services within the first week of school and drop my

books off, get them back in an accessible format in a timely manner, so I can make my decisions

and conduct my semester as close as I can to everyone else.

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Work Cited

Dooley, David M. “Memorandum” E-mail sent to the University of Rhode Island community. 23

Feb. 2011

Dougan, Thomas “Adapted Text, step by step” E-mail sent to Matthew Paul addressing

University on getting books for next semester. 14 Sept. 2010

Student 1. Sit down personal interview with Matthew Paul. 4 Mar. 2011

Student 2. Sit down personal interview with Matthew Paul. 4 Mar. 2011

Student 3. Sit down personal interview with Matthew Paul. 5 Mar. 2011

Student 4. Sit down personal interview with Matthew Paul. 5 Mar. 2011

Student 5. Sit down personal interview with Matthew Paul. 5 Mar. 2011