OPTIONS may be running out
The program that provides people with mild cognitive difficulties an opportunity to observe and participate in Oakland University classes is no longer accepting new students.
The OU School of Education and Human Services decided several months ago that new students would not be admitted into the Oakland University Post-Secondary TransitIONS program.
OPTIONS currently serves eight students with disabilities that make admission into the university through traditional processes highly difficult to impossible.
Robert Wiggins, associate dean of SEHS and founder of OPTIONS, said the program will continue as planned for the remaining eight students in the program, but the resources were beginning to be stretched too thin.
“We did not admit any new students this year, because we are not sure we can handle that many students,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins said the departure of student consultant Lea Van Amberg, who left her part-time position in OPTIONS to take a full-time job elsewhere, played a role in the decision.
“Until we can determine what we will be doing in terms of how we will replace Lea or how well we can handle the students in the program, we simply can not admit any new members,” Wiggins said.
OPTIONS found itself in the spotlight last year as one of its students, Micah Fialka-Feldman, sued OU after the university revoked his admission into campus housing.
Fialka-Feldman was one of the four charter members of OPTIONS in 2007 and is scheduled to be one of the first two students to receive a certificate of completion in May.
Students in OPTIONS do not receive grades for their work, and are not eligible to receive bachelor’s degrees.
Jane Thompson, SEHS assistant, said although the students do not complete a normal curriculum, the skills they develop and hone make then much more competitive in the job market.
“They don’t graduate in the sense that other students on campus do, but what they do do is get a certificate saying they have logged so many hours in a given concentration,” Thompson said. “What it does is it shows potential bosses that they have been out there and had the experience of going to classes. They have developed social skills; they are able to be good advocates for themselves.”
Wiggins said he anticipates OPTIONS will not admit any new students in either the winter or fall. He forecasts that the program will have only five students.
“That might be a more manageable number given the staff we have right now,” Wiggins said.
