Activities & Organizations News

SFAC: Center for Students with Disabilities, Urban Experiences aim to branch out with FY 2017

The Center of Students with Disabilities, Urban Experience Program and the University Career Services presented their request on Monday afternoon.

CSD asked for a one-time request of $23,755, of which $16,675 will be spent on printing, telecom, copiers and office supplies; $4,000 on promotional items; $1,735 on training and professional membership and $1,345 on administrative fees.

“It’s very exciting to go to events and have promotional items to give away,” CSD Director Cheryl Amoruso said. “When people see these items, they’ll think of our program and check us out. At first, we thought it was just fluff, but they really help bring our organization out there.”

The Urban Experience Program requested a base augmentation of $21,751 for their graduate assistant, as well as a one-time allotment of $21,000 to fund two events per month for seven months.

This will stop the program from paying for their assistant from their $50,000 provided to UEP through their central funding identified as scholarships/grants.

The program has grown in registration three times since it started, with the help of an office coordinator and a few students, UEP Director Raven Jones said.

“We’re not asking for any money for our facility, just for our student working for our students,” Jones said. “Our GA is great at her job, and she wants to contribute her work, so this would helpful.”

Economics sophomore Jackson Crawford raised the concern that the certain people, who are not students registered in the group, may take advantage of the program, which also helps foster care and undocumented student, among other non-profit groups.

“Our place is a one-time shop, and that’s attractive to many students,” Jones said. “So, we are seeing around 300 students who are unrepresented by the program.”

Instructional professor and undergraduate chair Simon Bott said he was disturbed because UEP might bite off more than it can chew in helping the growing number of students who aren’t represented by the program.

“We want to remove redundancy,” Bott said. “I can’t help but think that if you’re diluting your time with students who are not under your constituency that your program was created for and that is special for, it takes away what makes it special. I think you may be asking to spread your umbrella too much.”

The University Career Services Executive Director Monica Thompson asked for a one-time allocation of $94,987.50 for a career counselor, marketing and promotional items and more career fairs.

“We’re asking for four percent of SFAC’s allocation,” Thompson said. “We want to help students who are intimidated by (career fairs) because they don’t have a nice suit. So, we’re working with Dress for Success, among more than 390 employers who come to these fairs.”

The attendance at career fairs has spiked from five to 50 percent, since Thompson came to UH a couple of years ago. She hopes that they can help students find jobs on campus and after they graduate.

“We’re hoping to get started for a career course for students, to get them ready in-depth, providing them knowledge and get an increase in career fair attendance,” Thompson said. “We want to get that percentage of attendance to a hundred.”

CORRECTION: Raven Jones was originally misquoted saying there were “40 students who are unrepresented by the program.”

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