•Change of name for Georgia’s disability services organization

•Graduation and retention rate tracking

Tracking Graduation at Your Institution

GADSPHE is now Georgia AHEAD! The new Georgia AHEAD is off and running this year with many exciting plans and opportunities. The Board and membership of GADSHPE voted to change our name and to affiliate with our national organization, the Association on Higher Education and Disability—AHEAD. This move will help us to become a stronger state-wide organization. GADSPHE built a good foundation and has provided leadership to many disability services personnel. Georgia AHEAD will carry this forward as we strive to live up to our motto: Linking Professionals, Supporting Access.                                                                                                                        

Your Board has been hard at work on the 2003-04 organization goals. Increasing membership is a primary focus of attention with the regional representatives as key players. The regional representatives are charged with developing strong net-works within their given area which when added together, make for a strong organization. You may be hearing from your representative very soon if you haven’t heard from him/her already.                                                                  

Most of all, Georgia AHEAD needs your participation this year. There are many opportunities to be a part of your professional organization. Regional Representatives needs assistance in linking professionals and increasing membership. Committees need your input in coordinating special initiatives or the Spring Conference, and expert contact lists need to be generated so as to serve as a resource for others. This spring we will vote on the Georgia AHEAD Board for next year. If you are interested in contributing, please contact a current Board member. We only stay strong, if we have fresh and continued leadership.

Let me hear from you,

Sheryl Ballenger, President,

Georgia AHEAD.

The theme of our spring conference, The Power of Collaboration, is certainly appropriate for those of us in the disability services business. Being a "lone ranger, " I have come to appreciate my fellow disability service providers across town and across the state as well as the support and information provided by Georgia AHEAD.

Those of us working in private colleges often feel isolated and, literally, on our own. Becoming a member of Georgia AHEAD provided me with a lifeline when I needed information on the "best practices" or answers for "How do I … ?" Whether public or private, however, we all experience the same frustrations, the same budget cuts, and the same short-age of staff. So what do any of us do when presented with dwindling budgets, increasing requests for services, and an ever-increasing sense of being overwhelmed with the escalating demands upon our time and our expertise (or lack thereof)? The answer, of course, is collaboration.

Georgia AHEAD membership is the quickest way to cultivate a network of like-minded individuals with whom to collaborate when you encounter a problem. Georgia AHEAD members are a diverse group, ranging from disability service providers to sign language interpreters to LD specialists to vocational rehab counselors. If you have a question or a problem, there is more than likely someone who has had experience with a similar situation who would be more than happy to share information with you, or give you the name of someone who can help you. The spring conference provides an opportunity to make connections, to establish friendships and working relation-ships, to learn, and to find a little "R & R" away from the office. So join us in Athens this spring as we explore and celebrate the power of collaboration.

Two years ago, my staff and I at Georgia Southern University made the decision to determine the graduation/retention rates of our students, and are just now implementing this effort. The past two years have been spent developing an interface between our database, Banner, the data ware-house, and Banner Query soft-ware, Crystal Reports. We have had numerous meetings with our office of Institutional Research to determine the questions we want answered and to develop a model for tracking students. Our model is relatively simple. We are tracking 103 freshmen (Fall 2003) who have self disclosed their disabling condition. At the beginning of each term, we will query Banner to check the status of each student and track his or her progress thru the institution. While our primary task is to track graduation/retention rates, it became rapidly obvious to us that other possibilities exist within this data. A short list of the factors we will study include comparing GPA’s of students who set up services to those who fail to do so, we will make an effort to determine factors for success, and determine what accommodations and services were factors for success.

We currently plan to track this population of students for five years, and we also currently plan to replicate this study year-to-year. If other service providers are interested in developing their own tracking system, we welcome your questions. The most helpful per-son for technical questions is Doris Mack at (912) 871-1566 or e-mail at cwakins@GaSoU.edu.

Springtime in Savannah coming 2005!

Georgia AHEAD will be headed to the beautiful city of Savannah for its spring conference in 2005. The city will offer guests many attractions that match all tastes and interests. You can get an early peek by visiting the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau