Provincial Pilot Program |
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Peterborough MPP Gary Stewart presented President and Vice-Chancellor Bonnie Patterson with a cheque on October 1st for the first year of a pilot project to support and integrate students with learning disabilities. The amount is a share of the $30-million in provincial funding referred to in May's budget to establish the pilot project at Ontario universities and colleges. Trent - and Eunice Lund-Lucas, Co-ordinator of its current Special Needs office - is taking a lead role in setting up a "virtual" centre of excellence for post-secondary education for students with learning disabilities in Ontario. Lund-Lucas, as Project Manager, will oversee the "centre" established at four sites: Trent, Nipissing University, Loyalist and Canadore colleges. These pilot sites were teamed to provide a wide range of program choice for the students entering the institutions, as well as being relatively small in size and having a commitment to quality teaching and the individual student. Colleges and universities have admitted an increasing number of students with learning disabilities over the past decade. Learning disabilities common among such students are difficulties in areas such as listening, perceiving, reading, writing, calculating and spelling. Such students now make up as much as 3 per cent of the student body as some post-secondary institutions. To improve their possibility of success, such students benefit from admission policies and practices which are inclusive, combined with supportive programs that allow the student to excel to his or her best ability. The new program consists of two stages of system-wide supports for students with learning disabilities. The first year, being implemented this academic year, involves programs aimed at incoming students. The subsequent phase in the year following will also target upper year students. Intended to help students make the transition from secondary school to post-secondary, but also from post-secondary to work, the program will establish a support network of students, staff and faculty for students with learning disabilities. It will also provide opportunities for such students to contribute to the program as mentors and role models for future students with learning disabilities. Trent's proposal with its partner institutions was submitted last March in response to a government request. Trent is well qualified to take a lead role, since it has a high proportion of students with learning disabilities. The university sent information regarding the program to applicants who disclosed during the admissions process that they have a learning disability. This fall's pilot at each partner institution will involve up to 25 new first-year students who have self-identified that they have learning disabilities. There is no cost to the students participating. | |
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