Meeting the Challenge: - The Council of Independent Colleges

Alvin P. Sanoff
and learning to commence without further interruption.”
A New Orleans neighbor, Tulane University, has agreed to
provide temporary facilities while Dillard rebuilds its own
campus. Former president Michael Lomax, who spearheaded
Dillard’s transformation in the 1990s and is now president
of the United Negro College Fund, says that the single most
important ingredient in Dillard’s success is understanding
the needs of each student and addressing them to the fullest
extent possible. Katrina is unlikely to alter that tradition.
Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina has
taken on a mission of a different sort—educating students
with disabilities. The effort dates back to the late 1970s,
when the university began enrolling students who were
hearing-impaired and offering them special assistance. A
few years later, the university decided to open a comparable
program for blind students. Over time, the university has
expanded its distinctive programs to serve learning-disabled
students, chronically ill students, and others with special
needs. The university offers the students individual assistance
appropriate to their particular needs, including note takers
for the blind and sign-language interpreters for the deaf. The
students in the program live in the same residences as their
classmates, but in rooms that are specially equipped for them.
Each student is assigned a disability specialist who works
with the student throughout his or her time at Gardner-
Webb. Graduates of the program have gone on to careers as
attorneys, ministers, teachers, and accountants.
While students with special needs represent fewer
than 5 percent of the 2,300 undergraduates at Gardner-
Webb, their impact is disproportionate to their numbers.
Frank Campbell, who recently retired as the university’s
president, says that the presence of these dedicated students
has added an important dimension to the education of all
Gardner-Webb students. Many undergraduates now enroll in
Gardner-Webb
University in
North Carolina
offers students
individual
assistance
appropriate to
their particular
needs, including
note takers for
the blind and
sign-language
interpreters for
the deaf.
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