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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Since you asked, Jim, and I’m just in that kind of mood
right now (don’t ask me what kind of day I’m having), the truth is,
I’m defending all the “good” institutions out there that are
doing the right thing. It NEVER occurred to me when I took this job
nearly 8 years ago that we would offer only what we could get away with.
I came in this job and cleaned house. I completely rehabbed the lab I was
handed, which was woefully understaffed, underequipped, underutilized, and misunderstood.
I spent $400,00 the first year replacing computers, printers, networking
equipment, adaptive software, furniture, you name it. It never occurred
to me to find out what would barely meet the needs of the students I serve.
I bought what they needed and I never once bowed my head and begged the Dean. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>You see, my background is not academic or nonprofit. When I came
in here, I came in with a business attitude; I came in with facts and figures
and risks and advantages. When I spent $5000 to buy new licenses for
Zoomtext and Jaws, no one blinked. When I spent $35,000 on sound-reduced
enclosed rooms for students to use Dragon, no one blinked. When I sat my
network technician down a week after I arrived and showed him the schematics
for rewiring the entire network in my lab at a cost of about $30,000, he didn’t
blink either. Two years later when I started our fledgling alternate
format initiative and made a demand for equipment and staff, no one
blinked. We just did what needed to be done. The risks for not
doing what needed to be done were far costlier than doing the right thing to
begin with.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I do not, in my heart or in my experience, believe that many
other campuses are taking the attitude of “budget first,” when it
comes to adaptive technology. What I see are campuses making a choice to
provide what is needed for the students, from high end to low end. I see
campuses making cuts when they have to, and finding alternatives when they have
to, but these alternatives are rarely at the cost of removing higher-end solutions
that are already there. And certainly on this list, and others that I’m
on, I do not see people trying to “dumb down” the system and use
what is cheap. In fact, I’ve never seen a single one of the requests
for information about lower-end products that hit this list say “we’re
going to replace Kurzweil 3000 with Premier Software’s Scan and Read.”
I don’t see that in their messages. I assume they are looking for
alternatives because they’ve heard that there are alternatives, and they
want to know what’s out there. I am not making the assumption
that they are trying to cheap out, and I think that is what bothers me so much
about your posts. That is the first thing you assume about them, and
respond accordingly. It is unprofessional and counterproductive, in my
opinion, to be taking that stance with every post about Premier that hits this
list. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>In the case of my campus, and in the case of many other campuses
out there, access does not follow advocacy. Advocacy has no place in it
at all; we provide access regardless of the demand, and regardless of the cost.
We provide a complete working environment for our students and our potential
students. There is, truly, no other way to do it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Susan
Kelmer</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Adaptive
Technology Specialist<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Coordinator,
Campus Labs and Classrooms/IAL<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Technology
and Educational Support Services/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Campus
Technology Support Services</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:
"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>St.
Louis Community College at Meramec</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>314/984-7951</span><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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