(The Daily Orange | Feb. 1, 2022) When New York state restored funding on April 25 to InclusiveU, Beth Myers said she was thankful. But the Executive Director of [Syracuse University School of Education’s] Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education knew the $100,000 provided by the state was not enough to achieve all of the program’s future goals.
In 2015, the program only had 15 students. Today, the program has over 100, and Myers, who is also the Lawrence B. Taishoff Assistant Professor of Inclusive Education, wants it to continue expanding.
“We have not been able to meet all of the needs,” Myers said. “We have about a 50% acceptance rate, so we are trying to expand the support and services we provide, also the number of students we can serve.”
“If InclusiveU didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be in college right now.”—Harry Owens
InclusiveU, a Syracuse University program enabling intellectually and developmentally disabled students to attend college, was created in 2014 after a $1 million grant from the Taishoff Family Foundation to support neurodiversity on campus. Since their initial donation, the foundation has given an additional $4 million to the program, Myers said.
But state funding for the program was cut before the pandemic, and with InclusiveU’s shift to online programming during the spring 2020 semester, directors faced a challenge providing the support necessary for student success.
Virtual social events like karaoke, dance parties and lunch groups were scheduled alongside regular online classes and mentor meetings to ensure students fulfilled both their social and academic needs, Myers said. Harry Owens, now a sophomore in the program, said he enjoyed the Zoom events to help him acclimate to college.
“I came in during the pandemic, and it was kind of hard, but InclusiveU did really well to have Zoom events which were really fun,” said Harry Owens, a sophomore in the program. “If InclusiveU didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be in college right now” …