[nfbmi-talk] FW: College policy edited board draft for 8-27 meeting

[joe harcz Comcast]

Dear Elizabeth,

Do you know the name of the staff person who recomended the change you are 
talking about here on accomodations?

Frankly, each and every Certified Rehabilitation Counselor who has intruded 
beyond the confines of the law should be reported to the certification board 
for ethical violations.

In fact I am in the process of doing just that for those who made their 
extraordinary and extra legal interventions including the "straw vote" at 
the end of the college policy meeting.

I only have been hamstrung by time in developing transcripts to document 
these claims.

These folks were given ethics traing by Jennifer Weibold and Sherry Gordon 
in the RSA annual reveiw in 2008.

Thus they know that they are violating ethics and the Rehab Act. Thus the 
discrimination and violations are with malice of forthought and most ugly 
indeed.

If they insist on illegal and extra legal and unethical behavior in this 
process we can only conclude that in one on one actions they engage 
perniciously  against the intererst of consumers. This has been my contion 
all along.

Now, I must state for the record here that not all counselors and 
supervisors are bad guys or girls. The ones who did not intervene at the 
college policy meeting or negatively on this policy are wearing the white 
hats. They were busy doing their jobs and due diligence.

The others, including Beth White, Gwen McNeil, Lisa Kisial, Debbie Wilson to 
name but some so-called leaders were more busy in violating their code of 
ethics and the very law that establishes MCB and that should be the guidence 
at every step of the process.

But, as the saying goes "The fish rots at the head first."

It is Cannon who has directed this and other mob rule against the interests 
of the blind of Michigan and against every law under his charge. This 
behavior has been escalating at a maddening pace especially as the Grandholm 
Administration comes to its close and as his enablers simply are going out 
of business.

The so-called college policy is but one symtom and one peice of evidence of 
a scofflaw institution that has long since run off the rails.

Frankly, to expand on the metaphor this MCB is a train wreck. Cannon, is the 
engineer of this thing too.

And, might I point out that Cannon who is a master pupeteer, if anything 
else, has manipulated behind the scenes all of these events. And, the gross 
and utter irony and contridiction is that he, Cannon, who talks about the 
"soft bigotry of low expectations" and who talks about some phantom people 
who take 20 years to get a college degree does not have a college degree 
himself!

Moreover, there has been consistent unethical talk going n for years by 
counselors and so-called professionals at MCB who are sighted and envious of 
funding for college of the blind.

I've heard the talk for now nearly a decade that goes literally like this: 
"Well I didn't get my college funded!"

Now, I've got some answers for that sort of thing.

One, is that most of these CRCs did get funding including the sighted ones.

The other answer to this absurd position is that they wouldn't even have 
their highly paid job without blind folks and the very rehab act they 
violate perniciously.

The ultimate answer is to not let the door hit them in the backside if they 
don't like these things.

Or they could simply poke their collective eyes out and then become blind 
and then become consumers.

By the way and in that regard has Cannon, White, McNeil, Kisial and those 
jokers actually gone through the "immersion" program at MCB TC?

I doubt it.

I'll tell you I'm mad as heck and I'm not going to take it anymore.

These clowns and scofflaws have to go.

Joe
'
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth" <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>
To: <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>; "Michigan Students" <mi-abs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 10:49 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] FW: College policy edited board draft for 8-27 meeting



Hello List,

Joe is correct. There is now only one final version of the college policy 
that will be considered at the board meeting next Friday. I honestly fail to 
understand how this committee is suppose to work because everything I hear 
that the committee is suppose to do never seems to end up happening. It is 
almost as if they can never really make up their mind about how to run 
things except for the fact that they seem rather adamant about passing the 
policy a certain way. I am deeply opposed to this final draft for so many 
reasons that I cannot even begin to count.

Their attempt to include the input of consumers and college students only 
seems to be an empty promise. Just look at the list of names who edited the 
final draft. Do you see the names of any consumers or current college 
students listed in this list of names? They claimed that they wanted us to 
work with them to create this policy. In fact, at the last Commission Board 
meeting, they said that if we did not like how the policy was written to put 
our ideas and suggestions in writing, and that is exactly what we have done. 
However, rather than embracing this input with an open mind, it seems as 
though the only thing they have done with our ideas is toss them out the 
window without giving them a second thought.

In my opinion, it is the agency who is the driving force behind this policy 
because if only they could pass a new college policy, then it would make 
them look good in the eyes of the federal audit. If I recall correctly, it 
was the agency who wanted to change this policy and not the Commission 
Board. I still believe that their motive is to implement the new DELEG 
Financial Needs form which they claim needs to be a part of the policy. I 
can imagine that the agency wanted this policy to pass with no questions 
asked, but they finally found an issue that both consumers and the 
Commission Board feel passionate about.

Not only does the policy still include the DELEG Financial Needs form, but 
they have now taken out the no harm clause in regards to the Memorandum of 
Understanding which stated that the Michigan Commission for the Blind shall 
provide an accommodation or service when there is a dispute over who should 
provide the service or accommodation. This change was made based on the 
recommendation by a staff person who said that this statement was a 
disincentive for college and universities to provide these services. 
However, this statement can be found in both the Rehabilitation Act as well 
as the Memorandum of Understandings.

So we definitely have our work cut out for us if we want the Commission 
Board to pass our version of the policy rather than the one that is being 
presented to them by the committee. A few weeks ago, both policies were 
presented to the Commission Board, and they were presented to pick and 
choose what they liked best from each policy. Unfortunately, this no longer 
appears to be the case, and there is only one final draft of the policy that 
will be voted on during the meeting next Friday.

With this in mind, I strongly urge everyone who can to attend the meeting 
and voice their opinion about the college policy. Even though the Commission 
Board accepts public comment by email, it will be important for us to be 
there in person to present our public comment because the comments submitted 
by email are read in the afternoon. Since the discussion on the college 
policy is scheduled for the morning, I imagine a decision will be made on it 
before they read the public comments that are submitted via email.

I apologize for not sending out this message sooner. I was out of town when 
I received this message, and as a result, I failed to pass it on to the list 
in a timely manner. Personally, I am getting burned out from all of the hard 
work I have put into this issue.  I would greatly appreciate your support in 
making sure that when the Michigan Commission for the Blind passes a new 
college policy that it favors the rights of blind students rather than 
simply a means for the agency to nickel and dime services to college 
students. Wile I understand the power of one voice, just think of what we 
can accomplish if we can come together and speak with one unified voice.

Elizabeth

From: geri.taeckens at isahealthfund.org
Subject: College policy edited board draft for 8-27 meeting
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:56:32 -0400

Dear fellow board members and college policy work group members,

 Attached is the final edited draft of the policy that came out of the June 
21st 2010 work group.  There were some modifications to this draft as a 
result of e-mail feedback through 7-19-2010 and then edited by Gwen Botting, 
Geri Taeckens, with Leamon Jones, Amber Silvey and Sue Luzinski inputting 
the references indicated in the draft.

Not every piece of feedback was written into this draft.  The editors tried 
not to make any major content changes as we wanted to preserve the integrity 
of the agreed upon content that came out of the group process.  I did 
however, send everyone a rough draft with notations that indicated added 
staff or consumer recommendations.  I also sent a draft written by Fred 
wurtzel and Elizabeth Monke.  It will be up to the board if they want to 
modify any of the wording or content of the attached draft based on those 
recommendations.

Again, I will reiterate that along with any college policy approved, I would 
encourage the board to recommend adaptations to the college assessment 
criteria and the DELEG statement of financial need.

I want to again thank everyone for their incredible commitment to this 
process.  I would like to encourage staff and consumers to speak any 
concerns they may have about this policy during public comment at the 8-27 
board meeting.  I wood also like to ask that we all understand that this 
policy can not possibly be agreeable to everyone in every way, but that the 
process of cooperative effort be celebrated and the policy approved by the 
board be embraced.

Thank you again.

Geri


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