November 14, 2003
Student Senate Allocations Committee,
The Union of Students with Disabilities is submitting a special request for Spring 2004 events, including two events for Disability Awareness month which is observed in April and a trip to the first Historical Disability Pride Week and Parade in July 2004. All the events requested will further the Union of Students with Disabilities mission and serve to galvanize the University of Florida disability population, which exceeds some one thousand students. The mission of the Union of Students with Disabilities (USD) is to advocate on behalf of all students registered with Disability Resource and promote campus wide awareness of the needs, abilities, expectations and interests of students with disabilities. There are no dues for membership. All members of the University of Florida community are welcome to join.
Disability Awareness month will be observed in April 2004 and will feature a wheelchair basketball tournament and a reenactment of a former event, the Disability Issues former. The wheelchair basketball tournament will be between able-bodied students in wheelchairs and the top-ranking professional wheelchair basketball team in the nation, the Dallas Mavericks. The event should serve to raise awareness for the disability population and promote the exposure and social inclusion of disabled students on the University of Florida campus. After a few years of non-existence, the Disability Issues Forum will return to the campus on April 7, 2004. The goal of the Disability Issues Forum is to provide an opportunity for service providers, academics and college students with disabilities to debate the issues facing the disability community today as they consider the role disability will play in the future of higher education and in American society as a whole. The forum will feature the keynote speaker, Marta Russell. Russell is an author, political theorist, and economist focused on disability issues.
The first Historical Disability Pride week and parade will be from July 17 to 21, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois. The attendance of the first Historical Disability Week and Parade will further the mission of the Union of Students with Disabilities by educating those who attend about the history of the disability movement, as well as allow us the opportunity to build a sense of community within the macroscopic realm of the nation as a whole. The Historical Disability Week and Parade will be an invaluable opportunity for all those who attend to facilitate a greater sense of community and pride in being disabled. Pride and community are necessary components to a movement’s ability to thrive and progress, and would serve to benefit the disability community at the University of Florida. To quote Malcolm X, "Our community must be the source of their own strength politically, economically, intellectually, and culturally in the struggle for human rights and dignity. Community is home and it is power." The members who attend the Historical Pride Week and Parade will be able to bring back knowledge and the ability to further the scope of the University of Florida.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Bethany Stevens
Vice President of Union of Students of Disabilities
http://grove.ufl.edu/~usd