Campus Life
More colleges programs welcome Students with autism
College programs provide high-functioning students with Autistic Spectrum
Disorder opportunities for success.
By Kathryn W. Foster (Special to The Miami Herald)
Going to college can be difficult for an autistic child. Even a student who is
academically ready will have difficulty navigating campus life.
“The time a student isn’t in class can be the most challenging for a Asperger’s
student,” she said Rebecca Hansen, director of the College Support Program for students
with Asperger’s Syndrome at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. Hansen said the
typical applicant in her program will say, “I can make the grade to get into college, but I
don’t know if I can manage it on my own.”
High-functioning students with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, which includes those
with Asperger’s , often, need a different kind of help that what’s provided by a school’s
office of disability services.
“There are a lot of individuals who are academically capable but who struggle with
other aspects,” said Dr. Susan Kabot, executive director of the Autism Institute at Nova
Southeastern University.
Nova is addressing this need by launching Access Plus and hopes to start with eight
dormitory students for the fall 2013 term.
“We want it to be a natural proportion of students on the autism spectrum to other
students at Nova,” Kabot said. “The student has to be academically qualified and has to
admitted to Nova.”
Research by Kabot and her team found that students with Autism Spectrum
Disorder (ASD) who meet college admission standards have the biggest challenges in social
areas, “being able to fully join in campus activities, participating appropriately in class and
organizing their time to complete assignments.”
Kabot says the NSU Autism Institute has been working on Access Plus for several
years, training professors and staff, and visiting other programs, particularly Marshall
University.
Hansen of Marshall says that program was started by the tax-payer-funded West
Virginia Autism Training Institute in 2002 with one student.
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“It was the grassroots effort from a parent,” Hansen says. “It has evolved into so
much. Now we have 45 students.”
A critical piece of the Marshall program, which costs $4000 per semester, is
collaborating with professors and other disability services. A staff of 23 includes mentors
who meet face to face with students every other day. There is also a daily study hall, social
and academic goal setting, and help with navigating campus life.
A participant, who also has to accepted to Marshall University, “has to be safe
enough to live in the dorm. They might have a football player as their roommate or have a
private room,” Hansen said. “We want the student embedded in campus life.
“The hard part is not being able to accept them all,” says Hansen. The program is
limited to 10 new students a year.
As the awareness of autism and the diagnosis of children with ASD become more
prevalent, Hansen hopes more universities will offer programs.
MoSAIC at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga began five years ago as a
dorm program. Director Michelle Rigler said they scrapped that after a year, as well as a
second attempt that teamed with the counseling center, and started over.
“We pulled in a group of students,” and with their input, built a comprehensive
program. Unlike other programs, “we don’t charge right now but I don’t know how long
that will continue. The reality is we fundraise.” Rigler said.
Dr. Bryon Kluesner, adaptive technology coordinator at UT Chattanooga’s Disability
Resource Center, spoke in January at an international autism conference in Hawaii on the
transition to college for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
“They had to kick us out of the room, there was such an outpouring of interest in our
program,” Kluesner said.
Marshall and UT Chat are among some 15 to 20 schools with programs targeting
ASD students. Beacon College in Leesburg in Central Florida takes a different approach. It is
an accredited college exclusively for students with disabilities.
Dr. Shelly Chandler, Beacon’s vice president for academic affairs, said about 30
percent of the 190 students have ASD. Students have to have a regular high school diploma
and have the potential to do college work. The professors “try to reach every learning
style,” Chandler said.
Nothing that many of the students relate to animals, she decided, to add a dog to her
comparative psychology class.
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“I did it for a few different classes. I could illustrate psychological principles and the
dog could illustrate them,” Chandler said.
An autistic student who had walked around Beacon with a black hood pulled over
her hair, rarely making eye contact, lit up when she saw the dog. Bonnie Lefoley, the
administrator who loaned the puppy, recalled, “The next thing we know the hood’s off and
the smile is on her face. Everybody’s listening. Rebecca’s talking.”
“It was life, ‘Oh my God, my dog did that!” Lafoley said.
That student, Rebecca Stoler, is now a senior at Beacon.
“She’s got a sharp mind,” Chandler said. “She savored the experiences with the dogs.
She came to see me today and said, ‘Do you need any help moving? I’m really good at it.’”
Beacon is expanding and Chandler is moving to a new building.
“We want options for families,” said Dr. Diane Adreon, associate director of the
University of Miami/NSU Center for Autism & Related Disabilities, which serves 7000
families in the tri-county area.
“We’re very excited that Nova is going to create a comprehensive program of
support services for individuals on the autism spectrum” who are able to attend college,
Ardeon said, noting that her center is registering 500 new families every year.