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McBurney Center helps students with disabilities navigate college Story by Peter Coutu
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reshman Samantha Heesacker, who has autism in addition to clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety, is one of 23 current UW-Madison students on the autism spectrum and officially registered with the McBurney Disability Resource Center, which makes her college transition different than that of most students. Even the special education teachers trained to help students with disabilities had trouble facilitating her transition during her early public school education. “Too many able people go into that profession thinking they are saving a disabled kid. A lot of them go in with a condescending attitude,” Heesacker said. “I wish
something would change in special ed so disabled kids get the respect they deserve.” Although doctors diagnosed Heesacker with autism when she was four years old, her parents did not tell her about the disability until she was nine. “I didn’t know I was disabled so I didn’t know why I was getting picked on,” Heesacker said. “And I think that encouraged behavior from other students.” Classmates would mock her during her formative years in school because of her disabilities, which she wishes she had known about and understood earlier. Throughout most of her precollege education, Heesacker was in the Individualized Education Program, a free public school program designed to aid students with disabilities or delayed learning skills. Heesacker decided to stop
BETSY OSTERBERGER/THE DAILY CARDINAL
The McBurney Center provides accomodations for many students whose disabilities make college more difficult, including extended time on exams and sign language interpretations. using the IEP in high school because she said she struggled to confront her disabilities. However, her sentiments changed once arriving at UW-Madison. “It was just weird to think of myself as disabled for a long time,” Heesacker said. “But I ended up finding other people
who were also going through the same thing and I got more involved in [that community].” After enrolling at UW-Madison for the fall 2015 semester, Heesacker confirmed her disabilities with the McBurney Center, which provided accommodations for her course work, attendance and testing requirements.
The center also provided her with a smart pen that can record the lecture and track when she takes notes if she feels overwhelmed. Tessa Timler, an accommodation specialist at the McBurney Center, said the center has accelerated the registration process
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Judicial philosophies apparent as Bradley, Kloppenburg square off in State Supreme Court debate By Jayson Snyder THE DAILY CARDINAL
PHOTO COURTESY OF WISCONSIN TIBETAN ASSOCIATION
The Dalai Lama’s visit to Madison this week was the 10th he has made. He spoke at events on various issues, including how to promote global happiness and nonviolence.
Dalai Lama visits Madison to discuss nonviolence, education By Negassi Tesfamichael THE DAILY CARDINAL
With mental health care costs expected to soar in coming decades, world leaders in science and health looked for ways to improve global happiness and well-being at a Wednesday panel
discussion featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama. UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, said the Dalai Lama had interesting insights into modern research. “There are always things we
learn from meeting with him,” Davidson, who has been friends with the Tibetan leader since they first met in 1992, said. “We learn by his example. He is the living embodiment of the very things
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Candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court JoAnne Kloppenburg and Rebecca Bradley met Wednesday at the Milwaukee Bar Association’s Supreme Court Judicial Forum to promote their campaigns before the April 5 election. JoAnne Kloppenburg is the presiding judge at the District 4 Court of Appeals in Madison and shared her intent to ensure all cases are adjudicated on a fair and unbiased basis. She stressed the need to see each case with an “open mind.” “We need to have a court that is independent, free of partisan politics, free of special interests, and not dominated by Scott Walker,” Kloppenburg said in response to a question about judicial philosophy. Justice Rebecca Bradley touted her diverse experience after serving as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge and a Wisconsin Court
of Appeals judge. Gov. Scott Walker appointed Bradley to the state Supreme Court after the death of Patrick Crooks last fall. “The real reason that drives me to serve the people of Wisconsin, as a member of the judiciary, is my judicial philosophy by saying what the law is and not what I may wish it to be,” Bradley said. Bradley was on the defense amid a recent discovery of strongly worded political condemnations and anti-gay sentiments she wrote as a student 24 years ago in several columns published in the Marquette Tribune. The columns were revealed by the left-leaning group One Wisconsin Now. Moderators asked Justice Bradley to offer examples of how her world views have changed since the radical and offensive claims she made as a
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”