Self-Advocacy

[ajasfolks2]

Lauren's Mom, I think you've done a great job assisting your daughter AND her place of higher ed with, well,  some higher ed when it comes to food allergies and accommodations!   

Lauren`s Mom, I am 19 in my second year at a very difficult university where the students have an average incoming GPA of 4.2.  It is very very competitive, so I completely understand what you are saying about your daughter having no time to self advocate.  Here is my take on it.  The colleges do seem very stuck on the student self advocating.  Like your daughter, I have been self advocating for years, but between a full class load in a difficult major and a part time job, I barely have time to eat, let alone self advocate.  Here is how my mom and I have worked it out.  We have had some serious problems with my university as far as accommodations.  What we do is if I need my mom`s help (not because I am not capable of self advocating, but because I don`t have time to deal with it), she composes an email as though she is me, then I read it and send it from my email address to whoever at the university I am trying to address accommodations with.  That works well for us.  I think you won`t get anywhere if you try to resolve anything on your own.  By college, they really don`t want to deal with the parents.  I would suggest you just write the email and send it to your daughter to copy and paste so it comes from her email address.

BeachGirl --
I am not wild about impersonating one's child.  Perhaps a parent assist with a letter template might be more appropriate as it can help the student begin to see some of the better ways to word and advocate.  But I'd insist my child compose and deliver in his or her own words.

Personally, I wouldn't write my own child's research paper any more than I'd compose a complete email or other body of writing and then have him/her sign his/her name to it (or ME sign his/her name to it!).  My kids need to learn to advocate for themselves, with my assistance in the background if needed.  But the kids also need to make mistakes, own them, and ultimately learn from them.

If a college/university ever discovered -- or even suspected -- that I was the author of my child's correspondence regarding LTFA, I'd bet they'd also wonder what OTHER work was not my child's own. 

Integrity is imitated and learned.  Just my .02-worth.

[Mfamom]

I feel the same way about impersonating your child.  I feel that there are always tell tale signs that someone other than the person claiming to write the letter did not. 
I understand that college students are super busy, but life is super busy.  I feel that having a plan to address basic day to day concerns is important in college the same way it is in life. 
Making a plan does take time.  I think back to how much time elementary school sucked out of my life, but once we had the plan in place, things went much more smoothly. 
IDK exactly how it works in college, but I hope that whatever way you choose to address the concerns works out for you and your DD, Lauren's mom!

[CMdeux]

Ajas has nicely illustrated my major concern here, as well-- that if it were ever suspected that this writing was not the student's own...


and let me just point out that EVERYONE associated with a university has generally got a SUPER-keen eye for writing quirks and style.  VERY keen.

Students are pretty dumb to think that faculty don't know when they've plagiarized.  They always know. 

I would be somewhat concerned that my teen (being an adolescent without quite adult judgment yet) would also be quick to generalize some kind of approval for the process of claiming another's intellectual property (even mine) as her own... 

I dunno.  A template or helping to wordsmith something, yes.   Actually just stripping headers and slapping her signature on something that I've written?  Ai yi yi, NO.

I realize that not everyone shares my opinion on that one, and that's fine.

[momma2boys]

I'm not associated with a university, but can usually tell when someone else tries to pass off something as their own. Even here, reading on my Kindle, I can't always see who the poster is, but after so long, I can usually tell who it is. Same on Facebook.

People aren't tricked as easily as you think!

[Mfamom]

People aren't tricked as easily as you think!

aint that the truth!!!

[guess]

General musings.  Oman v. Portland Public Schools went to appellate court in part on the ability of a parent to represent their child pro se for FAPE between the IDEA and 504.

My understanding as a current college student married to a professor at the same university is plagiarism is limited to academic dishonesty, although one can indeed plagiarize one's own self as long as it is related to academic submission in the practice of recycling previous papers without proper citation and disclosure.  My understanding is there are two considerations: (1) academic (2) proof of non-disclosure or lack of citation.

Universities are rarely not recipients of federal financial assistance therefore subject to Title II as well as Title III.  FAPE is not an obligation that postsecondary must meet therefore universities have no way to treat ADA differently for students of majority age as any other recipient or public accommodation would.  Whether a parent has a business relationship with the university for financial transaction I think there may be some argument there.  Considering the university's approach 'stuck' on self-advocacy for following federal law isn't consistent with their legal obligations.

I'm not a lawyer but I wonder if something like a durable power of attorney would allow a parent or other advocate able to represent the student on these disability negotiations that comply with law without engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.  It's not unheard of for a lawyer to act as a silent partner in advocacy assistance for clients that can do more DIY without the lawyer's direct involvement on behalf of a client.

Without looking into it I'd make a guess that power of attorneys would not allow a sort of parent-child pro se for civil rights past age of majority unless it was for extended guardianship like diminished capacity.  Then again, I don't know.

[Beach Girl]

No one is impersonating anyone.  I am guessing that those who think it is impersonation for my mom to write a rough draft of an email, send it to me to tweak, and for me to send it from my own email address, don`t have a student in college.  I am an adult.  When I send an email to my university, I write like an adult.  If anything, my mom`s rough draft requires me to edit her grammar, nothing major but adding or deleting a bit, or breaking one long sentence into two sentences.  My mother isn`t writing my school papers (if she did I would not be able to maintain my GPA, since her last writing class was over 30 years ago and I have had more writing classes than she has).  She is merely writing a rough draft of an email for me to tweak, which saves me time and energy when dealing with the food allergies.  I can assure you that no one at my university is thinking plagiarism or impersonation when she composes an email, I edit it, and send it.  Perhaps those of you with kids in high school or younger cannot really understand the concept.  College students in highly competitive schools in difficult majors who are heavily involved in extracurricular activities or who work to pay for school often have no free time.  That is the hard reality.  By the time we get to college, we usually write better than our parents, especially if they haven`t taken a writing class in decades.

Lauren`s Mom, I am glad to hear that things are going better.  If other issues come up, I highly recommend your writing an email, letting your daughter tweak it and send it, if it is at a time when she does not have the time to compose it herself.  It takes a lot of pressure off me when my mom does that, especially if I am studying for midterms or finals and need to stay focused on my studies.  If your daughter is in a highly competitive university, it is far more competitive than high school, even a high school with a large number of AP classes.  I can really relate to your daughter`s situation with demanding classes, a demanding extracurricular activity, and very very little free time.  While we would never consider my mom writing something related to my school work, her composing a rough draft of an email related to food allergy accommodations is a huge help to me and has not created any problems whatsoever with the school.  To the contrary, it has helped resolve problems.