1. Silo-Breaking:
Collaborating Campus-wide To Move from Disability "Support" to Universal Design
Elisa Laird-Metke, JD
Director, Disability Resource Center
Samuel Merritt University
@ElisaLM
@elm_of_sf
Craig Elliott, PhD
AVP, Enrollment and Student Services
Samuel Merritt University
@DrCraigElliott
@cmedos

2. Ground we’ll cover: What is the Community Organizing framework?
How can CO principles be applied in the university setting to break down silos and further inclusion?
What are some specific strategies we can begin to shift the culture?
Are these the right questions?

3. What is Community Organizing?

4. Community Organizing (defined in one sentence)
“Community organizing is the process of building power through:
involving a constituency in identifying:
problems they share and
the solutions to those problems that they desire;
identifying the people and structures that can make those solutions possible;
enlisting those targets in the effort through negotiation and using confrontation and pressure when needed; and
building an institution that:
is democratically controlled by that constituency that can develop the capacity to take on further problems and
that embodies the will and the power of that constituency.”
Community Organizing: People Power from the Grassroots. Dave Beckwith, with Cristina Lopez. Center for Community Change.

5. Community Organizing (defined in two sentences)
“[C]ommunity organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise:
that the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions;
that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and
that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership — and not one or two charismatic leaders — can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions.”
Barack Obama, 1988, Illinois Issues magazine.

6. Community Organizing Themes:
Creating power
Soliciting solutions from many
Identifying allies
Focusing on specific goals
Working with multiple groups
Broadly based/
multiple leaders
Creating a common vision
Unifying constituencies
Using multiple strategies

7. How do we apply these principles in the college/university setting?

9. Join Campus Groups
Identifying allies
Reach out and ask to have disability office staff (or reliable allies) invited to participate in various campus Committees.
Have representation of disability office on Student Affairs leadership team.
If your campus doesn’t already have a multi-disciplinary Accessibility Committee, ask to create one.
Broadly based/
multiple leaders
Soliciting solutions from many
Creating a common vision

10. Notice Opportunities
Join the construction planning team (or at least request to review proposed plans before they are finalized).
Actively volunteer to serve or plan programs or new campus initiatives.
Serve on committees outside of your “regular” functions.
Find other champions!
Unifying constituencies
Working with multiple groups
Using multiple strategies

11. Create Allies
Share resources with other departments, staff, and faculty.
Ask to present at faculty meetings, annual trainings, faculty onboarding, etc.
Help faculty enhance their syllabus, course, or other educational materials for UD
Partner with colleagues in the Diversity and Inclusion office to broaden diversity in programming.
Focusing on specific goals
Identifying allies
Unifying constituencies

12. Partner with Students
Empower students to use their voices for progress. Support them when they do.
Co-sponsor student events.
Conduct student focus groups and other regular assessments to reveal current issues and needs.
Using multiple strategies
Broadly based/
multiple leaders
Soliciting solutions from many
Unifying constituencies

13. So that’s the “what”… What about the “how”?

14. Four Principles of Community Organizing
People are motivated by their own self-interests.
CO is a dynamic process that requires constant attention and effort.
Learn to deal with conflict and confrontation.
Issues addressed must be chosen carefully and defined well. Issues must be “immediate, specific, and winnable.”
by the Center for Community Change

15. Four Principles of Community Organizing
People are motivated by their own self-interests.
CO is a dynamic process that requires constant attention and effort.
Learn to deal with conflict and confrontation.
Issues addressed must be chosen carefully and defined well. Issues must be “immediate, specific, and winnable.”
by the Center for Community Change

16. Four Principles of Community Organizing
People are motivated by their own self-interests.
CO is a dynamic process that requires constant attention and effort.
Learn to deal with conflict and confrontation.
Issues addressed must be chosen carefully and defined well. Issues must be “immediate, specific, and winnable.”
by the Center for Community Change

17. Four Principles of Community Organizing
People are motivated by their own self-interests.
CO is a dynamic process that requires constant attention and effort.
Learn to deal with conflict and confrontation.
Issues addressed must be chosen carefully and defined well. Issues must be “immediate, specific, and winnable.”
-Saul Alinski
by the Center for Community Change

18. Barriers to Success 1. “[T]he problem is the
institutional resistance by
people in positions of power.
Further, this resistance is
based on different self-interests, not lack of knowledge by decision-makers or incompetence…”
Mike Miller, Alinsky for the Left: The Politics of Community Organizing. Dissent. Winter 2010.

19. Barriers to Success 2. Attitudes: Medical Model Decentralized Offices
Compliance Purpose
3. Lack of funding
4. Short term thinking
5. Silence

20. To Avoid Barriers… Give those in power
To avoid these barriers: engage people in positions of power by providing not just facts and reasons supporting the need for change but also giving them reasons that it is in their own self-interest to help create the change you seek.
Give those in power
reasons that it is in their own self-interest to help create the change you seek...

21. Appealing to administrators’ self interest:
Improved retention rates
Mission-driven efforts
Cost savings:
Long term financial thinking is less expensive
Enhanced campus diversity and inclusion

22. Final Thoughts

23. Frame your goals so they are immediate, specific, and winnable.

24. Good community organizers recognize small wins and understand that sometimes progress is incremental.

25. Don’t just wait for the “right” chancellor, president, VP, or Dean to automatically do the right things for access.
Engage your Spheres of Influence now.

26. Don’t compare your school to others
Don’t compare your school to others. Just start where you are, jump in, get some wins, and keep going!

27. Ground we covered: What is the Community Organizing framework?
How can CO principles be applied in the University setting to break down silos and further inclusion?
What are some specific strategies we can begin working to implement?

28. Thank You Elisa Laird-Metke, JD Craig Elliott PhD
Director of Disability Resource Center
Samuel Merritt University
@ElisaLM
@elm_of_sf
Craig Elliott PhD
AVP Enrollment and Student Services
Samuel Merritt University
@DrCraigElliott
@cmedos