Fall 2021

Congratulations to our very first award recipients!

  • Adam Burden-Student Involvement

“Adam Burden and Jordan Holliday-Millard recognized the need to make University traditions accessible to all students. As such, the proposed moving the gold nugget students rub for luck from the middle of a staircase to a location better suited for the University community. The gold nugget is now located near the student entrance to the Student Activity Center as a great location to ask for luck for our various athletic teams, on the pathway through campus to ask for luck in classes and other projects, and in a great location to take photographs to show Niner Pride.”

  • Virginia Fuentes-Parking and Transportation Services

“Terrance and Virginia are Niner Paratransit drivers by day, but they are ALWAYS willing to jump in on any other project needed to be completed. When ODS stated to PaTS that they had a project they could use some help with, Terrance and Virginia were ready to assist. The project was to survey campus buildings and log the status of building door actuators in an effort to figure out which locations were out of compliance or just needed some attention. Terrance and Virginia worked together to survey (90) locations across campus and logged each location in detail, stating specific location, actuator height, card swipe availability and height, if the actuators were functional, etc. They then took the project one step further and put together a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of the locations and descriptions of each so ODS had a clear idea of what they saw during their survey. Terrance and Virginia’s willingness to assist and attention to detail on this project shows a true commitment to ensuring our Charlotte campus is as friendly as possible when it comes to accessibility. Thanks to Terrance and Virginia for a job well-done!”

  • Jordan Holliday-Millard-Enrollment Communications

“Jordan Holliday-Millard and Adam Burden recognized the need to make University traditions accessible to all students. As such, the proposed moving the gold nugget students rub for luck from the middle of a staircase to a location better suited for the University community. The gold nugget is now located near the student entrance to the Student Activity Center as a great location to ask for luck for our various athletic teams, on the pathway through campus to ask for luck in classes and other projects, and in a great location to take photographs to show Niner Pride.”

  • Terrance Lambert-Parking and Transportation Services

“Terrance and Virginia are Niner Paratransit drivers by day, but they are ALWAYS willing to jump in on any other project needed to be completed. When ODS stated to PaTS that they had a project they could use some help with, Terrance and Virginia were ready to assist. The project was to survey campus buildings and log the status of building door actuators in an effort to figure out which locations were out of compliance or just needed some attention. Terrance and Virginia worked together to survey (90) locations across campus and logged each location in detail, stating specific location, actuator height, card swipe availability and height, if the actuators were functional, etc. They then took the project one step further and put together a PowerPoint presentation with pictures of the locations and descriptions of each so ODS had a clear idea of what they saw during their survey. Terrance and Virginia’s willingness to assist and attention to detail on this project shows a true commitment to ensuring our Charlotte campus is as friendly as possible when it comes to accessibility. Thanks to Terrance and Virginia for a job well-done!”

  • Morgan Meehan-Student Engagement

“Under Morgan’s leadership, both the Popp Martin Student Union and Cone University Center have been intentional rather than reactionary regarding accessibility. From facilities to technology, considering protruding objects and access to movies and other events, determining what doors can remain open and which should have actuators, Morgan takes into account the impact of organizational decisions on community access to engagement on campus.”

  • Michael Smalenberger-Department of Mathematics and Statistics

“I have been a colleague of Michael Smalenberger for over 5 years and have worked closely with him for more than half of that time. As adjunct Lecturers we share an office, often teach the same courses, and hence frequently collaborate on course materials and share pedagogical insights and best practices with each other and other colleagues. Every semester Michael and I teach several Top 40 courses, and frequently teach large enrollment sections with 80-140+ students. Without fail, we always have numerous students with accommodations from the Office of Disability Services enrolled in these courses. Because I’m very familiar with Michael’s conduct as an educator, I can unequivocally and without hesitation say that Michael is very deserving of the Dubois Award for Accessibility Improvement.
Since the time when I first met Michael, I was struck by how much he invests in the educational experience of his students. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Michael would frequently have numerous students visit him in our office either to discuss course material, seek advice on academic plans, or even just to chat. His passion to help students succeed was evident not only from his instruction and interaction with students enrolled in his courses, but also from the guidance he provided in leading several students in undergraduate research funded by the Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge and Equity in Assessment institutional grants. Michael has informed me that not only was it a priority of his to include students in this research who haled from traditionally underrepresented groups in higher education, but that the research topics investigated directly pertained to the accessibility of academic material to students with impairments. Some of this research was presented by his students at UNC Charlotte’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, which not only added to their educational experience while at UNC Charlotte, but certainly facilitated them in reaching their goals post-graduation. The fact that Michael engaged in this work as an adjunct Lecturer without receiving recognition or compensation clearly indicates that he continually focuses on, and is driven by, a strong intrinsic motivation on such topics.
Michael’s singular focus on the success of his students again became evident once remote teaching commenced due to the pandemic. Despite the sudden onset of remote instruction where most faculty primarily focused on making their courses available remotely, Michael’s approach focused on ensuring his students who have accommodations had an unobstructed path to success. The vast amount of time and effort Michael had already invested in designing his course materials and instruction around accessibility not only aided the transition to remote instruction, but also benefited his students who did not have accommodations. One common trend which particularly stuck with me occurred on several occasions during our faculty meetings where we as a group shared best practices for remote instruction. In these meetings Michael was a steadfast advocate that universal design should always be conducted, and that remote instruction was an impetus and opportunity for more students and faculty to recognize the importance of and use such resources. I am delighted to say that many faculty heard and responded to his call to action on accessibility.
Even though it may appear to myself and many of my colleagues that Michael’s repertoire of resources and practices are the epitome of accessibility, from working in close proximity to Michael I know for certain that he is constantly striving to improve and lead by example. While I am convinced that Michael’s distinction in prior semesters fully warrants him receiving this award, the reason I am nominating him now is his demonstrated exemplary practices in the current semester. Specifically, it is understandable that many people in many regards are yearning for a return to the pre-pandemic status quo. But in this quest for normalcy, Michael continues to highlight how the old status quo in its entirety is not what is best for all students, especially for some with impairments. Many lessons have been learned as a result of the current pandemic, and this is true also for pedagogical practices. Over the course of the last three semesters, many educators have explored, implemented, and improved educational technologies and other aspects of their instruction. Michael is no exception to this, and in fact has on several occasions spearheaded these initiatives within our department. Instead of returning to the practices before these additional insights were gained and improvements made, Michael structures his courses so that each student can choose whatever best meets their needs, and he helps guide them in this process. What has unfortunately now widely been deemed “optional”, Michael continues to exert the extra time and effort to make universally available, even freely sharing with other faculty. For this reason, Michael’s classes are very often highly desired by students and his courses always quickly reach capacity. Additionally, even though he is an adjunct faculty member, he is often invited to participate in course redesign and improvement initiatives by department leadership.
One example Michael recently shared with me was regarding a student with a hearing impairment who partially relies on lipreading to follow along in lectures. Since the return to in-person classes where masks are mandatory, this student expressed difficulty following lectures in other courses. However, in Michael class, he allows students to choose whether to attend in person or via Zoom even though he always lectures in-person wearing a mask. While this dual form of instruction requires extra effort which few other instructors exert, a feature which this allows Michael to use is the automatic transcription of spoken word in Zoom. This has enabled the aforementioned student to follow along during Michael’s class which is not available to this student in the other courses. This is just one small example of the many tools Michael routinely uses which benefit his students and other instructors could use. By nominating Michael, and hopefully by him receiving this award, I hope this will help shed light on the fact that such kind of instructional practices are possible, very beneficial, and can be implemented on our campus. His continually demonstrated commitment to accessibility is exemplary and laudable, and for this reason Michael is highly deserving of the Dubois Award for Accessibility Improvement.”

  • Desiré Taylor-Department of Mathematics and Statistics

“In her role as an instructor in the math department, Desiré has demonstrated an above and beyond dedication to accessibility of course materials for the Calculus courses she teaches. She has worked extensively with the Disability Services office to ensure the course text students use is accessible, has made strategic decisions on course materials specifically to ensure accessibility for students, and in her work with the Course Production Team in the School of Professional Studies has also dedicated herself to remediating hundreds of homework examples, videos, and other student resources. Her work for this has included completely redoing these documents to ensure they’re built from scratch to be accessible. This represents a substantial amount of work that Desiré has never turned away from doing, even knowing the number of hours it requires. Desiré’s commitment to the goal of accessibility in her courses, and specifically her online courses, is exemplary and inspiring. She deserves all the recognition she can get for this unwavering dedication to equal access for UNC Charlotte’s students.”