"The Wright Stuff"

Over at Disability Culture Watch, Simi Linton has yet another great post. (Click above).

This time, it's about a subject close to my heart - disabled veterans who need help as they navigate the system toward getting a college degree. Enter Dartmouth President James Wright. He wrote in a Community Letter to Dartmouth in February of this year that:

"Many of you know that I served three years in the Marine Corps. Since 2005, I have been visiting wounded Marines at Bethesda Naval Hospital. I have also gone to Walter Reed Hospital. I go bed to bed talking to these young men and women, all of them seriously wounded, and I always urge them to consider returning to school. I have not sought to recruit students for Dartmouth, but a week before Christmas when I visited I gave out twenty-five Dartmouth caps! I am always moved by their stories and inspired by their courage and sacrifice."

In her post, Simi Linton wrote:

"Wright started looking for a way meet these veterans’ needs. He contacted David Ward at the American Council on Education, who agreed to help develop the program. Wright helped raise $300,000 and this spring, educational counselors are working at Bethesda, Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. In the program’s first week, more than fifty veterans asked for appointments with the counselors and now about one hundred wounded veterans are being served."

Dr. Linton also writes about suggestions for educators to prepare the way for disabled vets - and improve conditions in general for pwd attending academia.