Every DSPS Program is coping
with significant budget cuts, laying off staff and determining
which services and activities are the most critical to keep in
order to provide timely and effective academic
accommodations.
Consider this Section a place
to brainstorm ideas for cutting costs, increasing program income or
presenting creative and flexible ways to serve your students.
The Galvin Group encourages you to share your thoughts and
suggestions, without reservation. Be aware, however, that
none of these ideas have been edited for content validity or
appropriate use of DSPS funds. Nor have they been sanctioned
by the System Office.
In other words, if some
of these ideas backfire, screw up your accounting system, send
human services into a tizzy, or just plain don't work,
you will find us hiding under our desks trying to figure out who
hacked into our website and put up such crazy schemes.
BRIGHT IDEAS
- How about arranging the
CAPED Conference so that colleagues in the field who cannot be
there in person can be there in a virtual mode? - reduce the
conference cost for those persons who want to attend the conference
virtually. I recently attended the ADHD virtual conference and not
only were key people in the field speaking, I attended from my
office, and got the same things out of it that I would have it if
had been in-person. (Maria Pena)
- Instead of eliminating LD
assessment, how about designating certain colleges in each region
as LD Assessment Centers? The student interested in the assessment
would be give a DSPS referral from the one college that would refer
them to another college for the service. Or, how about making the
LD assessment into a 3-unit class to get extra revenue? (Maria
Pena)
- Transfer test proctoring
responsibilities to the Coordinators of Academic Divisions- DSPS
still approves the accommodation and determines the parameters of
the accommodation. (Janice Emerzian)
- Close the office from 12-1
for everyone in that all know it is closed for lunch and everyone
is back on time and no one becomes frustrated trying to call others
during varied lunch hours. While this may seem like a simple notion
it is really working well. (Janice Emerzian)
- Gavilan
College has developed a FastTrak group
registration system
- Fullerton
College has virtually solved their need for
Notetakers by providing a notebook that offers NCR paper and by
recruiting "service learning" students
- Bakersfield
College has merged test proctoring to the campus
testing assessment center
- Reedley
College has begun to make increased use of
Kurzweil To Go and they have also begun to create alternate media
with Kurzweil initially, which allows students to convert files to
their MP3 players independently.
- Bakersfield
College has created a scheduling chart that involves
educational planning with students who require interpreters, beyond
the current semester extending to their entire educational plan
while at Bakersfield.
- Peralta District is
creating new district-wide policies and forms to reduce duplication
of effort among the four colleges in the district.