By Anna Gustafson
Queens College and City University of New York officials stressed the importance of individuals with disabilities working in concert to propel each other to success and ensure they receive equal treatment during last week’s forum celebrating CUNY’s Disability Awareness Month.
“Too many people suffer in silence,” said Iris DeLutro, vice president of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents the faculty and staff of CUNY. “It isn’t until you link up with other people that we begin to make things happen.”
The CUNY Coalition for Students with Disabilities sponsored the April 14 forum, which university officials said they hoped would inspire further dialogue about the challenges faced and achievements accomplished by those who are disabled and other minority groups.
“I learned about the power of the collective in Queens College’s committee for students with disabilities,” said Chris Rosa, CUNY’s assistant dean for student affairs and a Queens College graduate who has muscular dystrophy.
When Rosa originally came to Queens College as a student, he said he wanted nothing to do with others with disabilities because he had for so long been in special education classes and wanted to distance himself from them.
“But during that first year, I felt I was missing something, that bond with other students with disabilities,” Rosa said. “So I joined the committee for students with disabilities.”
Rosa said he had consistently been pleased with the recognition disabled students received at CUNY schools and noted that non-disabled students in particular began to pay attention to those who were disabled following Queens College’s “sensitivity day,” an event once held at the university to promote awareness of students with disabilities.
“People who didn’t normally use wheelchairs would use them so they could see what challenges those with disabilities faced,” Rosa said.
The day helped to emphasize that “we can really define and celebrate what sets us apart and brings us together,” Rosa said.
Philip Alfonso Berry, vice chairman of the CUNY board of trustees, said students should reach out to peers from all different backgrounds.
“I grew up in Brooklyn, was born in Bed Stuyvesant and grew up in Crown Heights and 30 percent of my high school was Hispanic,” Berry said. “When I came to Queens College many years ago, it was not like that. I developed friendships with people from different backgrounds that I’ve kept to this day. There is often more you have in common than what separates you.”
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
