Pedagogy and Student Services for Institutional Transformation (PASS IT)
U.S. Department of Education, #P333A050023ACT1

Pedagogy and Student Services for Institutional Transformation (PASS IT), a collaboration between University of Minnesota Disability Services, General College (soon to be renamed the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning within the College of Education and Human Development), and the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy (CRDEUL), established as its primary goal to develop a corps of trainers to facilitate professional development workshops in the implementation of Universal Design (UD) and Universal Instructional Design (UID). The purpose of this project is to make postsecondary student services and courses and classrooms, regardless of subject area, accessible to students with disabilities. The goal of these efforts is, to the extent possible, to create classroom situations that allow accommodations that are inclusive rather than segregating students with disabilities from other students and regular classroom activities (e.g., to be able to chooses to take tests with extended time together with all other students enrolled in the course, rather than to be segregated for all test-taking experiences). Over the 3-year duration of the project, our goal is to provide training for more than 2,000 postsecondary faculty members and student affairs administrators nationwide, in addition to creating professional development materials and guidebooks for the implementation of UD and UID in specific academic disciplines and student services. Achievements to date include:

• The presentation of professional development workshops on implementing Universal Instructional Design at dozens of local, state, regional, national, and international conferences.
• The successful completion of  the 2006 PASS IT Summer Institute: We have been successful in exceeding our recruitment goal of 60 applicants for 30 slots and in securing commitments from 30 participants from a wide range of academic disciplines, from art to analytical chemistry to occupational and physical therapy. During the Summer Institute these recruits worked in disciplinary groups to begin developing guidebooks for future trainings.
• The creation of resource materials: We have developed and continue to add to a bibliography of print resources. We have also created lists of online resources and legal resources and an extensive handout that describes assistive technologies in order to make their capabilities understandable to higher education professionals with no previous experience with their use.
• Establishment of the PASS IT Web site: The resources previously described are available on the PASS IT Web site. Links are also provided to materials developed through a previous grant (CTAD, 1999-2002).
• The development of the outline of a scholarly book to be authored and edited by PASS IT Summer Institute participants: In addition to disciplinary professional development guidebooks, PASS IT will build on the success of the book published as apart of CTAD by creating a revised edition that incorporates more than 15 new chapters by PASS IT Summer Institute participants.

Revised April 10, 2007