Remember that one kid in the front who always kept writing after the exam ended? And the one girl in the seventh row who always taped the lectures while you were doing the crossword puzzle?
Maybe they weren't as strange as you thought.
For several hundred students at Penn, such methods are some of the "reasonable accommodations" made to help them succeed in class despite their diagnosed learning disabilities. Administrators stress the individual nature of both the issues students face, and the solutions available to them.
"Every one of the accommodations is done on an individual basis," said Max King, executive director of the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life. "Each student has a different set of needs based on the disability and on the classes they are taking."
According to this policy, each student negotiates the reasonable accommodations with the Office of Services for Students with Learning Disabilities, and then approaches their professors to facilitate the adjustments. But one student said that the individualized service meant that he is having increasing difficulty in receiving the accommodations he asks for.
"They're trying to use this title of reasonable accommodations, but they're slowly getting rid of reasonable accommodations," said the College senior, who asked not to be identified. "I've had to hire attorneys to go against the University. It's really against the students."
The student, who was diagnosed with slow information processing speed, said that he was previously allowed take-home exams, but was now restricted to oral exams -- a practice that he said was also soon to be ended. And, he said, the loudest protests came from his academic department.
"They want people like me to fail," he said. "This is the result of pressure from the faculty.... They feel that it lowers the prestige of the department."
But other students said that the process worked for them by allowing them to be proactive in working with their professors to arrange their accommodations.
"I've actually had a really good experience for the most part -- every teacher I've told has been very understanding," said College senior Paige Donaldson, who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. "Everyone has been very accommodating. I've really never felt uncomfortable with any teachers in talking to them about it... I've really never had a negative reaction."
While students had mixed feelings about the services they received, several complained that the largest problem was slow-moving bureaucracy.
"I think the bureaucracy could be better organized and there could be better communication," said one College junior diagnosed with ADD. "But as far as any intentional impediment, I don't think so."
But this concern, along with several others may soon be remedied, as all learning resources and disabilities services are being relocated under one Office for Student Disabilities Services. Administrators said that both the change in location -- all offices will be moved to Harnwell House -- and the closer administrative affiliations between various departments will provide better services for students.
And, King said, workshops and literature on how to accommodate students will be available to professors.
Students also said they remain hopeful that the new infrastructure would improve the accommodations.
"The people are nice, but it's the system," the College junior with ADD said. "Anything that's streamlining is going to help.
The accommodations -- which range from alternative exam forms and extra time on exams, to allowing in-class note takers and proctors -- are now orchestrated through several offices, including the Office of Services for Students with Learning Disabilities, the Office of Affirmative Action and the Office of Tutoring and Learning Resources. About 150 undergraduates and graduate students have taken advantage of such accommodations this semester through the learning disabilities branch.
"In collaboration with the students, I want to determine what sort of accommodations would work best for them," said Bill Sandberg, the director of the office. "I do whatever I can under any circumstances to get students whatever accommodations they are deserving of."
"A new learning environment will test a learning disorder in new ways," he said. "A student may never have had a large lecture class before, so they may not realize that that's not a good environment for them to concentrate in."
Although many students are diagnosed with ADD before or soon after they arrive at Penn, other students who seek accommodations have a mixture of issues including slow information processing speeds, reading difficulty, dyslexia or memory problems.
